Date: 1782

"As woodbine weds the plants within her reach, / Rough elm, or smooth-grain'd ash, or glossy beech, / In spiral rings ascends the trunk, and lays / Her golden tassels on the leafy sprays, / But does a mischief while she lends a grace, / Straitening its growth by such a strict embrace, / So love t...

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"Rough annoyance" may rankle in the mind

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

Reveries are "flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought" and don't attain "to the dignity of thought"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

In polishing the mind, Luxury gives it a "childish cast"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

One may "give an image all thine heart" but "Its empire is not hers, nor is it thine, / 'Tis God's just claim, prerogative divine"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

The soul may be "emancipated" and "unoppress'd"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

The mind may slumber sweetly in vice's snares, her "polish'd neck" bent beneath tyranny's "usurp'd command"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"Neglected talents rust into decay"

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"The mind attains beneath her [Freedom's] happy reign / The growth that nature meant she should attain."

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)

Date: 1782

"But what is man in his own proud esteem? / Hear him, himself the poet and the theme: / A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, / His mind his kingdom, and his will his law, / Grace in his mien and glory in his eyes, / Supreme on Earth and worthy of the skies, / Strength in his heart, dominion in...

— Cowper, William (1731-1800)