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TO
WILLIAM COWPER, Esq.
DEAR SIR,
THERE is, I hope, some propriety in my addressing a Composition to you, which would never perhaps have existed, had I not, amid the heavy pressure of many sorrows, derived infinite consolation from your Poetry, and some degree of animation and of confidence from your esteem.
The following performance is far from aspiring to be considered as an imitation of your inimitable Poem, "The Task;" I am perfectly sensible, that it belongs not to a feeble and feminine hand to draw the Bow of Ulysses.
The force, clearness, and sublimity of your admirable Poem; the felicity, almost peculiar to your genius, of giving to the most familiar objects dignity and effect, I could never hope to
