The Task by William Cowper
"The Task," written by William Cowper and published in 1785, is a significant work in English poetry, marking Cowper's first major use of blank verse. The poem reflects Cowper's transition from the formalism of the previous century to an emerging Romantic sensibility, positioning him as a precursor to later Romantic poets. Throughout its five thousand lines, the poem is divided into six parts, each exploring themes of nature, rural life, and the contrast between humanity's failings and divine ideals. Cowper utilizes the metaphor of a sofa to critique indulgence and champion a simpler, contemplative life connected to nature. His observations encompass the moral and social issues of his time, addressing the need for humility, the value of family, and the perils of urban living. Notably, Cowper's work resonates with a deep sense of spirituality and humanity, urging a return to Christ-like virtues amidst societal upheaval. "The Task" not only solidified Cowper's popularity but also solidified his role in the literary shift towards Romanticism, providing readers with both a reflective and critical perspective on contemporary life.
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The Task by William Cowper
First published: 1785
Type of work: Poetry
The Work:
The first popular poetic success of William Cowper was The Task, which was also his first major venture in blank verse. For the fifty-four-year-old recluse, the reception of his poem must have had a salutary effect, for he went on to become, according to his greatest champion, Robert Southey, “The most popular poet of his generation.”
Cowper’s place in literary history is often in dispute. He was born exactly one hundred years after John Dryden and completed his best work in the year of Samuel Johnson’s death. He neither aspired to become poet laureate nor wished to be the critical arbiter of his day. In many ways, however, he was the successor of both Dryden and Johnson. Cowper’s blank verse is perhaps the best between that of seventeenth century poet John Milton and William Wordsworth’s work in the early nineteenth century; his criticism expresses dissatisfaction with the extreme formalism of his age and anticipates, in some measure, the nineteenth century revolt against neoclassicism. He is usually said to be a writer of this transition toward Romanticism and realism.
His first work of any magnitude, Olney Hymns (1779), he undertook with his evangelical friend, the Reverend John Newton, while living at Olney with the Unwin family. “Oh! for a closer walk with God” is the most beautiful of his hymns.
Although Cowper’s writing of the then-fashionable couplet was not successful, his early verse was at least simple. He objected strenuously to Alexander Pope’s influence, which resulted in the highly ornamented versification of that age. Several long poems in this genre, published in 1782, serve as a kind of prelude to The Task. “Table Talk,” written in rather abstract couplets, is a dialogue concerning the political, social, moral, and literary topics of the day. Here Cowper’s dislike for the artifice of the eighteenth century is quite clear, and he damns most of the literary cults with faint praise, at the same time urging a return to God and nature for inspiration. “The Progress of Error” outlines the follies of high life and living as these affect the social structure: In this work he suggests a return to Christianity for the solutions to vexing problems. “Truth” extends Cowper’s religious beliefs almost as if his distant relation, the cleric John Donne, were making himself felt. Cowper’s thesis in the poem is that pride is truth’s greatest foe, while humility will uplift humankind. In “Expostulation,” he particularly decries anti-Semitism and urges England to remove this mote from the public eye. “Hope” and “Charity” celebrate God’s nature (not the human nature of the Age of Reason) as the proper study, or at least reflection, of humanity. Satirically, he contrasts humanity’s ways with God’s. Another poem of this early group is “Retirement,” an apology for his life as a recluse, his justification for giving up a life of action for the contemplative life of the poet.
In 1783, one of Cowper’s intimate friends, Lady Austen, urged him to abandon the restrictive couplet form for blank verse. Cowper tells of this happening in the “Advertisement” of The Task:
A lady, fond of blank verse, demanded a poem of that kind from the author, and gave him the SOFA for a subject. He obeyed; and, having much leisure, connected another subject with it; and, pursuing the train of thought to which his situation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length, instead of the trifle heat first intended, a serious affair—a Volume!
This volume of five thousand lines is divided into six parts: “The Sofa,” “The Time-Piece,” “The Garden,” “The Winter Evening,” “The Winter Morning Walk,” and “The Winter Walk at Noon.” The poem’s success was immediate, launching for the middle-aged poet a career and a reputation.
The sofa that Cowper describes in the opening lines is the effete summation of humanity’s efforts to indulge in comforts, a human failing the poet presents with good humor. He leaves the sofa, as he says, “for I have lov’d the rural walk” with a good companion at his side. It is immediately apparent that the poet’s work is to justify humanity’s ways to God: “The task of new discov’ries falls on me,” he suggests as he goes abroad. The next lines indicate that he will not countenance romantic illusions of the peasant’s hard life or such poetic effusion of his age that tend to overlook the sordid, the cruel, or the ungodly. In comparing country and town, he sets up a dichotomy that persists throughout the poem: God creates and people destroy.
In “The Time-Piece,” about expediency, Cowper takes a long look at institutions, especially political. After a close examination of events now forgotten, he remarks in a memorable line, “England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.” The England he loves is the nation of an earlier, more virtuous, simpler time. He examines public figures, especially ministers, and finds them wanting. He suggests that God must be in every heart, Christ in every act. The river Ouse he describes as a symbol of immortality and ease.
“The Garden” brings the poet to the eternal verities of nature and causes him to celebrate family life and domestic happiness. Within this poem is the parable of Cowper (“I was a stricken deer, that left the herd”) who, wounded by society, retired to a life of religious contemplation. From this vantage point, he asks people to be humane and Christian, to eschew wars, to learn wisdom. “Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too,” is his plea to humanity to cultivate simple pleasures in a rural setting: “Health, leisure, means t’ improve it, friendship, peace” are what he thinks worthwhile. He concludes with a harsh renunciation of the city.
Continuing his statement of conflicting interests, in “The Winter Evening,” Cowper compares the tragic news of the world with the simple man who delivers the post, unmoved. So should one live, the poet says, interested and sympathetic but apart; nothing is pleasanter than a winter night spent with good friends in good talk and before a good fire. Again, the town appears as the corrupter, its poison filtering down in the form of fashions spoiling the simple folk and altering the landscape. Although there are consolations in poetry, especially Milton’s, rural life brings more compensations and inspiration.
“The Winter Morning Walk,” a bracing though aesthetic experience, restores the poet’s good humor as he observes beasts and people under winter’s thrall. Cowper sees in winter a hope for immortality, for as the seeds and hibernating creatures wait out the ice, so humanity is bound in history. He next shames the greats of history as tyrants of oppression and great countries as slaveholders:
Tis liberty alone that gives the flow’r
This is the substance of his argument. He concludes with an apostrophe to godly graces and offers thanks to God.
Finally, in “The Winter Walk at Noon,” the poet uses sonorous polysyllables to celebrate village bells as symbols of harmonious living—and offers also a backward glance at his own life. He describes the winter landscape in an ode to the cold, crisp season. In memorable passages, he anticipates the spring. Finally, he justifies the life of the rambler, the contemplative life of the poet who sounds the note of God’s truth, whether of castigation or exaltation.
Bibliography
Brunström, Conrad. William Cowper: Religion, Satire, Society. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2004. Reconsiders Cowper’s work within the context of eighteenth century political and religious culture. Brunström views Cowper not as a “pre-Romantic,” or an old-fashioned Calvinist living in a more secular age, but as a writer who understood the increasingly emotional quality of the era’s religious discourse and expressed that emotion in his work.
Feingold, Richard. Nature and Society: Later Eighteenth-Century Uses of the Pastoral and Georgic. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1978. Studies The Task in relation to Cowper’s views on society. By analyzing the poem from both pastoral and georgic perspectives, Feingold establishes that Cowper’s primary concerns are issues and conditions of contemporary life.
Free, William N. William Cowper. New York: Twayne, 1970. This comprehensive study of Cowper devotes one chapter to The Task. Biographical sources are cited to illustrate how Cowper’s personal experiences influenced the theme, structure, tone, and metaphors of his poem. Includes chronology and selected bibliography.
King, James. William Cowper: A Biography. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1986. Cowper’s poetic ambitions and literary career are the focus of this study. Good starting point for critical analysis of Cowper’s poetry.
Newey, Vincent. Cowper’s Poetry: A Critical Study and Reassessment. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1982. Exhaustive treatment of many of Cowper’s poems, including The Task. Meticulous examination of Cowper’s diction, tone, and syntax yields excellent interpretations of Cowper’s most popular, as well as his less celebrated, poetry.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Cowper’s Prospects: Self, Nature, Society.” In Romanticism and Religion from William Cowper to Wallace Stevens, edited by Gavin Hopps and Jane Stabler. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2006. Focuses on Cowper as an early Romantic writer. Includes analysis of The Task.
Priestman, Martin. Cowper’s “Task”: Structure and Influence. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Compares Cowper and other eighteenth century poets, illuminating the differences and similarities between Cowper and his contemporaries.
Terry, Richard. “Mock-Heroic and Grace: The Case of Cowper.” In Mock-Heroic from Butler to Cowper: An English Genre and Discourse. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2005. Terry traces the development of the mock-heroic genre of English literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition to his chapter on Cowper, he discusses the mock-heroic qualities in The Task on pages 27-29.