Work record
The Task
William CowperThe Task by William Cowper (1785)The Task, published in 1785, is a long poem in six books of blank verse that made William Cowper the most popular poet of his generation.1785 · 18th Century · Poetry · English
Abstract
Background. A witty neighbour challenged the reclusive poet to try unrhymed verse on a piece of furniture. The joke grew over a year into a long, rambling work.
Content. Beginning with a comic history of seating, the poet strolls into the fields near his home and praises rural quiet over city vice. He rebukes slaveholding and a careless clergy, confesses his own wounded flight from society and rescue by a Saviour, delights in his greenhouse and his newspaper by the fire, and closes with walks through snow toward a vision of a world made new.
Form. Six books of conversational unrhymed pentameter.
Themes. Retirement, nature as God's work, compassion for slaves and animals, national repentance and grace.
Reception. It was the best-loved long poem in Britain for decades and shaped the young Wordsworth. Every book is shaped by an evangelical conviction that the created world is God's handiwork and that sin, not nature, spoils it. The poet's private suffering appears only briefly, but it gives weight to his gratitude for a Redeemer and to his longing for the restored creation promised in Scripture.
For students. Read selections: Book I opening, Book II on slavery, Book III's stricken deer, Book IV's evening.
Key figures
- William Cowper: Poet and speaker
- Lady Austen: Friend who set the subject
- Mary Unwin: Companion of his household
Summary
The Task, published in 1785, is a long poem in six books of blank verse that made William Cowper the most popular poet of his generation. Its origin was playful: Cowper's friend Lady Austen urged him to write blank verse and, when he asked for a subject, told him to write about the sofa. The poem therefore opens with a mock-heroic history of the sofa, from the stool to the luxurious couch, but soon wanders, as the title suggests, into a broad and genial meditation on country life, nature, religion and the state of England. Book I, The Sofa, describes walks through the countryside around Olney and contains the famous line that God made the country, and man made the town. Book II, The Timepiece, reads the signs of the times: it condemns slavery, declaring that slaves cannot breathe in England, laments the decline of discipline in church and nation, and affirms England, with all thy faults, I love thee still. Book III, The Garden, contains Cowper's moving self-portrait as a stricken deer that left the herd, wounded and found by one who had himself been hurt by the archers, that is, Christ; it then celebrates the retired life of gardening, including the cucumber frame and the greenhouse. Book IV, The Winter Evening, begins with the post-boy bringing the newspaper and pictures the snug evening by the fire when the cups that cheer but not inebriate wait on each. Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, moves from frost and snow to an attack on tyranny and the Bastille and to a meditation on the true liberty that only grace can give. Book VI, The Winter Walk at Noon, reflects on the love of animals, condemns cruelty, and ends with a vision of the coming kingdom of God when creation will be renewed. Throughout, Cowper's evangelical faith shapes his love of nature, his hatred of cruelty and his social criticism. The Task influenced Wordsworth and Coleridge and anticipated the Romantic conversational poem, while remaining a devout Christian work. This edition also includes John Gilpin and several shorter poems such as To Mary.
Virtues in this work
Plot or Argument
- Book I: The Sofa
A mock-heroic history of the sofa, then country walks: God made the country, and man made the town.
- Book II: The Timepiece
Signs of the times: slavery condemned, the clergy and nation rebuked, England still loved.
- Book III: The Garden
The stricken deer found by Christ; the joys of retirement and gardening.
- Book IV: The Winter Evening
The post-boy, the newspaper and the fireside evening.
- Book V: The Winter Morning Walk
Frost, tyranny and the true freedom of grace.
- Book VI: The Winter Walk at Noon
Kindness to animals and a vision of creation renewed in God's kingdom.
Lessons
The stricken deer
Cowper describes his own wound of sin and despair and his rescue by Christ.
- Who is the one who had himself been hurt by the archers?
- Why compare himself to a deer?
- How does Isaiah 53:5 shed light on the passage?
Against slavery
Book II is one of the earliest great poems against the slave trade.
- What does Cowper say about slaves in England?
- Why might a poet's voice matter in public debate?
- How did Christians like Newton and Wilberforce act?
The country and the town
Cowper prefers quiet country life to the city's vice and noise.
- What does God made the country, and man made the town mean?
- Is he fair to towns?
- Where do you find quiet and why does it matter?
Context
Written 1783-84 at Olney, Buckinghamshire, where Cowper lived with Mary Unwin; the abolition movement, the loss of the American colonies and evangelical revival form the background.
Composition
Published by Joseph Johnson in 1785, together with Tirocinium and John Gilpin. This 1899 edition includes an introduction by Henry Morley.
Reception
Hugely popular for half a century; Henry Austen recorded that Cowper was his sister Jane's favourite moral writer in verse, and Wordsworth and Coleridge learned from its conversational blank verse.
Comparisons
- Olney Hymns
Cowper's hymns with John Newton.
- Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey
Wordsworth's blank-verse meditation on nature.
- Frost at Midnight
Coleridge's conversation poem, indebted to Cowper's fireside.
- Paradise Lost
Milton's blank verse, which Cowper adapts to the domestic and comic.
Quotes
Frequently cited
“I sing the Sofa.”
Frequently cited
“God made the country, and man made the town.”
Frequently cited
“I would not have a slave to till my ground,”
Frequently cited
“England, with all thy faults, I love thee still--”
Frequently cited
“Variety's the very spice of life,”
Frequently cited
“I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since;”
For Students
A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.
Reading Guide
Watch for
- The mock-heroic opening on the sofa.
- The line contrasting country and town.
- The anti-slavery passage in Book II.
- The stricken deer in Book III.
- The vision of renewed creation in Book VI.
Key terms and names
- Blank verse
- Unrhymed iambic pentameter, as in Milton.
- Mock-heroic
- Treating a trivial subject in grand epic style.
- Evangelical
- The eighteenth-century revival stressing conversion, Scripture and the cross.
- Olney
- The Buckinghamshire town where Cowper lived and John Newton was curate.
- Digression
- A wandering away from the main subject.
Seminar Questions
- Comprehension What subject did Lady Austen give Cowper?
- Comprehension What does Cowper say about slaves in England?
- Interpretation What does the stricken deer passage reveal about Cowper's faith?
- Interpretation Why does the poem keep wandering from its subject?
- Interpretation How does Cowper join love of country with criticism of it?
- Big Question Can quiet domestic life be a Christian calling?
Faith Connections
- Isaiah 53:5 (Scripture)
With his stripes we are healed: Christ the wounded healer of the stricken deer.
- Romans 8:21 (Scripture)
Creation itself shall be delivered: Book VI's vision of renewal.
- Proverbs 12:10 (Scripture)
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: Cowper's kindness to animals.
Logic and Rhetoric
Central argument: A playful task on the sofa becomes a meditation on country life; nature and quiet show God's goodness; the sins of the nation, slavery and cruelty are rebuked; and only grace gives true freedom and hope for a renewed creation.
Rhetorical device: digression. The poem's wandering structure lets everyday objects open into moral and religious reflection.
Debate: Resolved: that God made the country, and man made the town.
Memory Work
God made the country, and man made the town.
I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since;
Writing Prompts
Essay: Show how Cowper turns ordinary domestic life into religious poetry in The Task.
Comparison with Frost at Midnight: Compare Cowper's fireside in Book IV with Coleridge's.
Medical Lens
Cowper suffered recurrent severe depression and was confined at Dr Nathaniel Cotton's asylum in St Albans (1763-65). The Task presents gardening, walking and quiet routine as consolations, and its stricken-deer passage is a famous self-portrait of melancholy relieved by faith.
- Book III, The Garden
The stricken deer passage describes his wounded withdrawal from society and healing by Christ.
- Books III and IV
Gardening and fireside routine as a regimen against melancholy.
Creative Prompts
- Essay
How does Cowper's faith shape his love of nature and his social criticism?
- Poetry
Write blank verse about an everyday object that leads to a larger meditation.
- Classroom
Find three proverbs from The Task still in use and trace their origin.
Further Reading
- Olney Hymns, John Newton and William Cowper
Cowper's hymns.
- Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, Eric Metaxas
Context for Book II.
Verification notes
Text from Gutenberg #3698 (Cassell's National Library, 1899, introduction by Henry Morley). The Lady Austen origin is Cowper's own account in the Advertisement. The Jane Austen remark comes from Henry Austen's Biographical Notice (1818).
No verification flags recorded.