Above the steeple shines a plate,
That turns and turns, to indicate

From what point blows the weather;
Look up your brains begin to swim,
'Tis in the clouds-that pleases him,
He chooses it the rather.

Fond of the speculative height,
Thither he wings his airy flight,

And thence securely sees
The bustle and the raree-show
That occupy mankind below,
Secure and at his ease.

You think, no doubt, he sits and muses
On future broken bones and bruises,

If he should chance to fall.
No; not a single thought like that
Employs his philosophic pate,
Or troubles it at all.

He sees that this great roundabout,
The world, with all its motley rout,
Church, army, physic, law,

Its customs, and its businesses,
Are no concern at all of his,

And says what says he?" Caw."

Thrice happy bird! I too have seen
Much of the vanities of men ;

And sick of having seen 'em,
Would cheerfully these limbs resign
For such a pair of wings as thine,

And such a head between 'em.

IO

15

20

25

3309

35

NOTE S.

THE TASK.

BOOK I.-THE SOFA.

Of the origin of this poem we have already spoken in the Introduction (cf. p. xiv). Cowper himself explains the title of the whole and the names of the parts. He tells us that Lady Austen had set him a task, hence he called it the 'Task.' He continues :—

...

"It is not possible that a book including such a variety of subjects, and in which no particular one is predominant, should find a title adapted to them all. . . . For the same reason none of the inferior titles apply themselves to the contents at large of that book to which they belong. They are, every one of them, taken either from the leading (I should say the introductory) passage of that particular book, or from that which makes the most conspicuous figure in it. The Sofa being, as I may say, the starting-post, from which I addressed myself to the long race that I soon conceived a design to run, it acquired a great pre-eminence in my account, and was very worthily advanced to the titular honour it enjoys, its right being at least so far a good one, that no word in the language could pretend a better."

Of the plan, purpose, and form of the 'Task' Cowper likewise tells us :

"My descriptions are all from nature--not one of them secondhanded. My delineations of the heart are from my own experience -not one of them borrowed from books, or in the least degree conjectural. In my numbers, which I varied as much as I could (for blank verse without variety of numbers is no better than bladder and string), I have imitated nobody, though sometimes perhaps there may be an apparent resemblance, because, at the same time that I would not imitate, I have not affectedly differed.

"If the work cannot boast a regular plan (in which respect, however, I do not think it altogether indefensible), it may yet boast that the reflections are naturally suggested always by the preceding passage, and that, except the fifth book, which is rather of a political aspect, the whole has one tendency—to discountenance the modern enthusiasm after a London life, and to recommend rural ease and leisure, as friendly to the cause of piety and virtue.”

The 'Task' is a blank-verse poem in six books. It was the first important work in that metre since Milton's Paradise Lost,' Thomson's 'Seasons' perhaps excepted. We are apt to forget that no great blank-verse poem appeared in our literature between 'Paradise Lost' and Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King.' Although the 'Task' is a didactic poem-that is, a poem with a purpose, and intended to teach-Southey truly said of it, "Never were intellectual delight and moral instruction and religious feeling more happily blended than in this poem." It was first published in 1785 (cf. Introd., p. xv). The arguments placed by Cowper himself at the head of each book furnish a sufficient account of the contents, and show their desultory character.

1. Cf. the opening words of Virgil's 'Æneid,' "Arma virumque cano" (Arms and the man I sing).

sofa. From Arabic soffah, to dispose in order.

2. A reference to the poems on Truth, Hope, and Charity in the volume of 1782 (cf. Introd., p. xiii).

7. Lady Austen had suggested the writing of the poem (cf. Introd., p. xiv).

9. The ancient Britons painted their bodies blue, and Cowper confounds them with the Saxons, who were our ancestors.

19. joint-stool. A stool made of parts fitted or joined together, as distinguished from one more roughly made.

22. Alfred the Great, 871-901 A.D.

25. sorely. In poetry the use of the adjective for the adverb is permitted.

27. These are really not worms at all, but a kind of beetle that bores through wood.

30. vermicular. Shaped like a worm, from the Lat. vermiculus, a little worm; vermis, a worm.

39. cane from India. The cane used for chair-bottoms, couches, &c., comes chiefly from Sumatra in the East Indies. It belongs botanically to the genus of palm known as Calamus, and is akin to the reed.

52. obdurate. Accent here on the second syllable.

54. crewel, knot, was the name given to worsted twisted in knots for tapestry or embroidery.

58. Albion's happy isle-i.e., England. Albion or Albany was once the Celtic name of all Britain, and was subsequently restricted to Scotland, later to the Highlands of Scotland.

lumber, timber sawn ready for use.

61. Cripplegate. A division of the city of London, originally so called from the number of cripples who came there to beg.

64. rude, rough (cf. “Rude am I in my speech "). 77. twain, two, used now only in poetry.

two.

78. two kings of Brentford.

From A.S. twegen,

There is a tradition that a Saxon

monarch made two of the chief magistrates of the city kings of Brentford. There is an allusion to the tale in the Duke of Buckingham's farce 'The Rehearsal’(1671).

89-102. Here is surely in form an echo of 'Paradise Lost,' iv. 11. 640-655.

105. arthritic, gouty. From a Greek word meaning pertaining to the joints. Indulgence in eating and drinking sometimes brings on the disease of gout.

110. grassy swarth, the grassy surface of the land (cf. greensward).

114. An allusion to his school-days at Westminster School. 120. hips, the fruit of the wild rose.

haws, the berry and seed of the hawthorn.

121. crabs, a kind of apple (cf. 'Love's Labour's Lost,' v. 2, "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl"). 131. pilfers, steals in small quantities.

plunder, and facere, to make (cf. pillage).

From Lat. pilare, to

144. An allusion to Mrs Unwin. Cowper wrote this book of the 'Task' in 1783 when he had known Mrs Unwin for about eighteen years (cf. the two poems to her, pp. 169-171).

154-209. A description of the scenery of Olney. As a matter of fact Olney was not a pleasant place to live in, but “there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so," says Shakespeare in 'Hamlet,' and Cowper so loved nature that he could write, "Everything I see in the fields is to me an object; and I can look at the same rivulet, or at a handsome tree, every day of my life with new pleasure." The village was damp and the surrounding land a feverproducing marsh. Cowper himself declares that for eight months in the year the dirt was almost impassable, and that, although there were beautiful walks, it was a walk to get at them.

158. unsated, not satisfied.

160. slow (cf. 1. 25).

162. The effect of distance on the size of objects. Cf. 'Lear,' iv.

6:

"The fishermen that walk upon the beach,

Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring bark,
Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy

Almost too small for sight."

165. sinuous, curving, winding.

169. overthwart, on the other side of. Properly opposite to or crossing at right angles.

171-209. Cf. Ruskin 'Unto this Last': "No scene is continually and untiringly beloved, but one rich by joyful human labour; smooth in field; fair in garden; full in orchard; trim, sweet, and frequent in homestead; ringing with voices of vivid existence. No air is sweet that is silent; it is only sweet when full of low currents of under sound-triplets of birds, and murmur and chirp of insects, and deep-toned words of men, and wayward trebles of childhood." 173. square tower. Clifton church.

174. tall spire. Olney church.

176. villages remote. Emberton and Steventon.

185, 186. Shelley liked to compare the forest to the ocean. Cf."Now all the tree-tops lay asleep,

Like green waves on the sea.”

203. sublime, lifted up, exalted. This was its primary meaning. 205. boding, foreshowing, generally used of misfortunes. Scott, in ‘Marmion,' has “An owlet flaps his boding wing." Cf. Goldsmith, 'Deserted Village,' 199-200:

"Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace

The day's disasters in his morning face."

Although superstition attributes evil qualities to owls, they are really harmless and useful birds.

211. weather - house. A mechanical toy for predicting the weather. It usually consists of a little house, from the door of which appears the figure of a man when bad weather is expected, and that of a woman when the forecast is favourable.

248-257. If Cowper felt poetically the charms of solitude, he did not wish to be altogether out of the way of society.

252. a length of colonnade. There was a fine avenue of chestnut-trees in Weston Park.