William Cowper was born in 1731 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, as the son of an Anglican rector. He lost his mother when he was just six years old, and that early loss cast a long shadow over his life—he wrote about her with an enduring tenderness that never faded, even decades later. Shortly after, he was sent to boarding school, where he faced bullying that left deep scars on his self-esteem, a pattern of suffering that followed him into adulthood.
Cowper trained as a lawyer and was called to the bar, but the legal profession never felt right for him. When he was nominated for a clerkship in the House of Lords, the thought of a public examination triggered a breakdown so severe that he attempted suicide several times and was committed to an asylum in St Albans. Ironically, this crisis became a turning point: under the care of physician Nathaniel Cotton, Cowper discovered Evangelical Christianity, which provided him a way to cope.
“After his release, he moved to Huntingdon and then to Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he lived with the Unwin family and developed a close friendship with John Newton, a former slave-ship captain turned clergyman.”
Together, they worked on the *Olney Hymns* (1779), a collection that produced some of the most enduring hymns in the English language, including "God Moves in a Mysterious Way"—although Cowper's own faith was continually troubled by the belief that he was irredeemably damned.
His more extended secular work came later. *The Task* (1785), a long poem inspired by his friend Lady Austen, started as a mock-heroic piece about a sofa but grew into something much broader: a deep exploration of rural life, nature, domesticity, and urban corruption. This work made Cowper one of the most widely read poets in England and significantly influenced the Romantics who followed him, particularly Wordsworth.
