File:William_Cowper_by_Lemuel_Francis_Abbott.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
William Cowper
Sign in to saveAlso known as Cowper, William, Cowper William
English poet and hymnodist (1731–1800)
OverviewAI-generated
William Cowper was a British writer whose professional activity spanned from 1778 to 1793. He is associated with several literary works, including *The Triumph of a Christian* and *Opera omnia*. His writings contain lines such as "Absence from whom we love is worse than death" and "No dancing bear was so genteel."
Records regarding his life dates vary across sources. Some listings indicate a birth in 1731 and a death in 1800, while other entries cite a birth in 1568 and a death in 1619. The number of works attributed to him also differs, with counts ranging from five to thirty-four depending on the database.
Synthesized by Vinony from 20 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Crossref, Europeana Sparql, Wikiquote, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- Place of birth
- Berkhamsted
- Place of death
- Dereham
- Educated at
- Westminster School
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- Anglicanism
- Movement
- Romanticism
- Image
- William Cowper by Lemuel Francis Abbott.jpg
- Work location
- Switzerland
- Residence
- Weston Underwood
Show 14 more facts
- Commons category
- William Cowper
- date of death
- 1800-04-14
- date of birth
- 1731-11-15
- place of burial
- Norfolk
- Commons gallery
- William Cowper
- cause of death
- edema
- writing language
- English language
- nickname
- Bard of Olney
- ethnic group
- English people
- start of work period
- 1778-01-01
- end of work period
- 1793-01-01
- significant person
- John Newton
- P12749
- Nicholas Mahudel
- manner of death
- natural causes
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
32 objects attributed to William Cowper, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
William Cowper (26 November [O.S. 15 November] 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter.
One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem "Yardley-Oak".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Cowper” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.