Epitaph on a Hare

Listen to:

Epitaph on a Hare (2:08)

by William Cowper

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

[Written March, 1783. Published in The Gentleman's Magazine,
    Dec., 1784; afterwards in 1800. A MS. copy is in the British
    Museum.]

Here lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue,
     Nor swifter greyhound follow,
Whose foot ne'er tainted morning dew,
     Nor ear heard huntsman's Hallo',

Old Tiney, surliest of his kind,
     Who, nurs'd with tender care,
And to domestic bounds confin'd,
     Was still a wild Jack-hare.

Though duly from my hand he took
     His pittance ev'ry night,
He did it with a jealous look,
     And, when he could, would bite.

His diet was of wheaten bread,
     And milk, and oats, and straw,
Thistles, or lettuces instead,
     With sand to scour his maw.

On twigs of hawthorn he regal'd,
     On pippins' russet peel;
And, when his juicy salads fail'd,
     Slic'd carrot pleas'd him well.

A Turkey carpet was his lawn,
     Whereon he lov'd to bound,
To skip and gambol like a fawn,
     And swing his rump around.

His frisking was at evening hours,
     For then he lost his fear;
But most before approaching show'rs,
     Or when a storm drew near.

Eight years and five round-rolling moons
     He thus saw steal away,
Dozing out his idle noons,
     And ev'ry night at play.

I kept him for his humour's sake,
     For he would oft beguile
My heart of thoughts that made it ache,
     And force me to a smile.

But now, beneath this walnut-shade
     He finds his long, last home,
And waits in snug concealment laid,
     'Till gentler Puss shall come.

He, still more aged, feels the shocks
     From which no care can save,
And, partner once of Tiney's box,
     Must soon partake his grave.


 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

from Six Centuries of English Poetry by James Baldwin

WILLIAM COWPER was born at Great Berkhamstead, November 26, 1731. His
father was the rector of the parish, and his mother was Ann Donne of the
family of the famous John Donne. Cowper was educated at a private school
and afterwards at Westminster. It was intended that he should follow the
profession of law, and, after the completion of his studies at
Westminster, he entered the Middle Temple and was articled to a
solicitor. At the age of twenty-two, through the influence of his uncle,
Major Cowper, he was appointed to two clerkships in the House of Lords.
The excitement brought on by this occurrence, together with an unhappy
love affair, induced an attack of insanity, from which he suffered for
more than a year. In 1773 he suffered from a second attack of insanity,
which continued for sixteen months. It was not until 1780, when in his
fiftieth year, that he began really to write poetry. His first volume
was published in 1782, and comprised, besides several shorter pieces,
the three poems, "Conversation," "Retirement," and "Table Talk." His
second volume appeared in 1785, and contained "The Task," "Tirocinium,"
and the ballad of "John Gilpin," which had already become famous through
the recitations of one Henderson, an actor. Cowper's translation of
Homer was completed and published in 1791. From that time until his
death in 1800 he suffered from hopeless dejection, regarding himself as
an object of divine wrath, a condemned and forsaken outcast.

Cowper was not a great poet; but he was the first to abandon the
mechanical versification and conventional phrases of the artificial
poets, to find inspiration and guidance in nature. It may be said that
he lacked creative power; but he possessed a quickness of thought, a
depth of feeling, and a certain manliness and sincerity, which lifted
him above the level of the ordinary versifiers of his time.


=Other Poems to be Read:= The Castaway; John Gilpin; The Task; The Loss of
the Royal George.


REFERENCES: Southey's _Life of William Cowper_; _Cowper_ (English Men of
Letters), by Goldwin Smith; Hazlitt's _English Poets_; Macaulay's Essay
on _Moore's Life of Byron_; _Life of Cowper_, in the "Globe Edition" of
his works.