William Cowper, The Task

Joseph Musser (Ohio Wesleyan University)
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The Task

, William Cowper’s masterpiece, was first published in 1785, and quickly became the most popular poem of the late eighteenth century. Cowper had begun writing the poem in October 1783 when, according to his prefatory “Advertisement”, “A lady [Lady Ann Austen], fond of blank verse, demanded a poem of that kind from the author, and gave him the Sofa for a subject”. The opening line proclaims, “I sing the Sofa”. But the poem soon expands in scope and subject matter far beyond that beginning, to embrace, as Vincent Newey suggests, “practically the entire spectrum of contemporary English life” (

Cowper’s Poetry

93).

The subject of the poem is really Cowper himself, and The Task often has been categorized as a spiritual autobiography, an apologia, or a confession. It

1916 words

Citation: Musser, Joseph. "The Task". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7888, accessed 19 March 2024.]

7888 The Task 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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