It shall not grieve me then, that once, when call’d To dress a sofa with the flowers of verse, I played awhile, obedient to the fair, With that light task: but soon, to please her more, Whom flowers alone I knew would little please, Let fall the unfinish’d wreath, and roved for fruit; Roved far and gather’d much: some harsh, ’tis true, Pick’d from the thorns and briers of reproof, But wholesome, well digested, grateful some To palates that can taste immortal truth; Insipid else, and sure to be despised.
“The Task” was accompanied by a shorter poem, entitled “Tirocinium,” written expressly in dispraise of the existing system of public schools in England; and prompted by Cowper’s bitter recollection of his sufferings at Westminster. The volume was published in 1785.
As soon as this was completed, Cowper engaged in another more laborious undertaking, the translation of Homer. This also was suggested by Lady Austen; and it had a most beneficial effect in furnishing the poet with constant employment from this time forward to the end of his life, with the exception of those periods in which the pressure of disease was too severe to admit of any exertion. He spared no pains in the execution of this great work; and after his version was made, subjected it to a most careful revision, amounting nearly to a re-translation. It was published in 1791, and was preceded by a list of subscribers, whose number and individual eminence bear testimony to the high esteem in which Cowper was then held. His translation, however, has never been popular: he has avoided Pope’s errors, but he has failed in giving life and interest, and in catching the vital spirit of his author.
