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Sonnet To William Wilberforce, Esq.

By William Cowper

Topics: classic

Thy country, Wilberforce, with just disdain,     Hears thee by cruel men and impious calld     Fanatic, for thy zeal to loose the enthralld     From exile, public sale, and slaverys chain.     Friend of the poor, the wrongd, the fetter-galld,     Fear not lest labour such as thine be vain.     Thou hast achieved a part; hast gaind the ear     Of Britains senate to thy glorious cause;     Hope smiles, joy springs, and, though cold caution pause     And weave delay, the better hour is near     That shall remunerate thy toils severe,     By peace for Afric, fenced with British laws.     Enjoy what thou hast won, esteem and love     From all the just on earth, and all the blest above.

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Author:William Cowper

"Thy country, Wilberforce, with just disdain,..." by William Cowper

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Cowper

About William Cowper

William Cowper (1731–1800) was an English poet and hymnodist whose work bridges the gap between the Augustan age and Romanticism. His poems "The Task" and "John Gilpin" were enormously popular, and his hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" remains widely sung.

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