born Nov. 26, 1731, Great Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, Eng.
died April 25, 1800, East Dereham, Norfolk
British poet.
Throughout his life he was plagued by recurring mental instability and religious doubt. Olney Hymns (1779; with John Newton), a book of devotional verse, includes hymns that are still favourites in Protestant England. The Task (1785), a long discursive poem written "to recommend rural ease," was an immediate success. He also wrote many melodious, even humorous, shorter lyrics, and he is considered one of the best letter writers in English. His work, often about everyday rural life, brought a new directness and humanitarianism to 18th-century nature poetry, foreshadowing Romanticism .
William Cowper, detail of an oil painting by Lemuel Abbott, 1792; in the National Portrait Gallery, ...
Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London