COWPER'S LANDSCAPE 87 



Cowper's poetic vision was like his landscape, limi- 

 ted, though within its range it was searching and 

 accurate. His timid nature shrank from what was 

 rugged and wild. He found his consolation in 



* Nature in her cultivated trim 

 And dressed to his taste.' 1 



But no one before him had revealed to men the 

 infinite variety and beauty and charm to be seen by 

 the contemplative eye even in these everyday surround- 

 ings. The calm of evening 



'With matron step slow moving, while the Night 

 Treads on her sweeping train,' 2 



or the river shining in the moonlight beneath the 

 c wearisome but needful length ' of Olney bridge, or 

 the creep of autumn over wood and field and weedy 

 fallow, or the advent of winter and the shrouding of 

 the valley under snow, or the coming of spring, 



when <^ u 



1 1 he primrose ere her time 



Peeps through the moss that clothes the hawthorn root,' 3 



every mood of nature in this sequestered vale is 

 painted with a vividness and skill that evoke our 

 admiration, and with a sympathy and grace which win 

 our heart. That quiet valley has thus become classic 

 ground, for as long as English poetry is read, the 

 affections of men will be drawn to the home of 

 Cowper by the banks of the Ouse. 



The other two lowland writers whom I have selected 

 were contemporaries of Cowper, though Thomson 

 died when Cowper was only seventeen years old. In 



1 The Task, iii. 357. 2 Ibid., iv. 246. 8 Ibid., vi. 1 1 2. 



