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The Poetical Works of William Cowper have been depreciated by a misnomer, The Calvinist Poet. This, of course, assumes that if one is a Calvinist, then he cannot be a poet worth reading. This illustrates a well-known fact, that those who invent epithets about authors are usually either ignorant of his writings, or are sadly prejudiced.
Cowper did indeed embrace the Doctrines of Grace. But it cannot be said that he therefore wrote about nothing else. The reader of this choice collection will find Cowper a keen student of human nature.

''When He that ruled them with a shepherd’s rod,
In form a man, in dignity a God,
Came, not expected in that humble guise,
To sift and search them with unerring eyes,
He found, concealed beneath a fair outside,
The filth of rottenness, and a worm of pride,
Their piety a system of deceit,
Scripture employed to sanctify the cheat,
The Pharisee the dupe of his own art,
Self-idolized, and yet a knave at heart. –  EXPOSTULATION

In THE PROGRESS OF ERROR, he is both the historian and the philosopher, drawing a portrait of human character that is just as current today as it was in his time, or even in Noah’s time.
Cowper is described as of a melancholy mind. The truth is that he was blessed (or was it cursed) with insight known only to a few, seeing so clearly, yet so deeply, into the world’s follies, and knowing the wisdom of the Scriptures, he was often overwhelmed. For instance, he describes the pain of being a poet: How shall he arrest the fleeting images that fill the mirror of the mind and hold them fast? He sees the themes of sad import and feels the anxieties of life, yet so little understood. Still, he would not trifle, though the worlds be fond in their praise. This man, some would say, saw life with a jaundiced eye.
What he was ‘guilty of’ was seeing the human race as it is portrayed in the Holy Scriptures. He sees the Christ, too, and the salvation of this race of rebels, but Oh so few, so few, willing to repent, believe.

Cowper (1731-1800) was shy and timid, not suited to the rough and tumble world. His first volume of poems appeared in 1980, and the second in 1985. This was received well. He was by John Newton, with whom he wrote several hymns. He also authored There is a Fountain Filled With  Blood, His Way, and others.  496 pages, blue hard cover

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