Congratulations to Simon Watson on a useful new guide to William Cowper’s life and work. There is such a dearth of material about Cowper and his contemporaries that any introduction is welcome, but An April-Weather Life manages to be an enjoyably-written and vivid account that will encourage readers to make their own excursions into the
Book Reviews Susan Matthews, Blake, Sexuality and Bourgeois Politeness (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism No. 88). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 286 pp., 24 b/w illustrations. ISBN-13: 9780521513579 Luisa Calè ‘In an age of luxury woman aspires to the function of man and man slides into the offices of woman. The epoch of eunuchs was ever
Periodical Articles, Essays, Notes Bilbro, Jeffrey, ‘Who Are Lost and How They’re found: Redemption and Theodicy in Wheatley, Newton, and Cowper’, Early American Literature, 47:3 (2012), 561-89. Chantler, Ashley, ‘Critical Writing on William Cowper, 1980-2010’, Cowper and Newton Journal, 2 (2012), 44-56. Curry, Neil, ‘“The Contrite Heart”: Cowper and George Herbert’, Cowper and Newton Journal,
‘It was an idle endeavour to make us enemies’, wrote William Hayley in his Life and Letters of Cowper, ‘which gave rise to our intimacy.’1 Hayley was author of the best-selling self-help book in rhyming couplets The Triumphs of Temper, and a popular poet who had recently turned down Pitt’s offer of the laureateship because
To rise at noon, sit slipshod and undressed, To read the news or fiddle as seems best, Till half the world comes rattling at his door, To fill the dull vacuity till four, And just when evening turns the blue vault grey, To spend two hours in dressing for the day, 80 To make the
Cowper’s poetry was an enthusiasm of George Eliot’s youth. The young MaryAnn Evans first read him at the Misses Franklin’s school in Coventry and he appears to have been one of her favourite authors in her early years.1 The residue of that youthful encounter was the ability she displayed throughout her life to quote from
No object is too small to prompt his song – not the sooty film on the bars, or the spoutless teapot holding a bit of mignonette that serves to cheer the town-lodging with ‘a hint that Nature lives’; and yet his song is never trivial, for he is alive to small objects, not because his
All eyes are set to be on Olney in 2023, when the town will be at the centre of commemorations to mark the 250th anniversary of one of the world’s most beloved hymns, ‘Amazing Grace’.
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Museum and Gardens - £7.50 (includes an annual pass)
Gardens only - £3.50
Children under 16 - FREE
Hours: 11.00 - 4.30 (last entry 3.30)
Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Our Museum building remains CLOSED. We are opening our gardens on limited entry. The Cowper & Newton Museum gardens will be open to welcome you on Wednesday 5th August 10.30 – 12.15 and Saturday 8th August 10.30 – 12.15
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