Customer Reviews

The complete poetical works of William Cowper, esq., including the hymns and translations from Madame Guion, Milton, etc., and Adam; a sacred drama; ... of the author, by the Rev. H. Stebbing.

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As the reviewer above pointed out, this is not the complete poetical works of William Cowper, in spite of what the title on the cover and on the item entry says. It is very disappointing to order it in good faith and discover the best of Cowper isn't in it. What is in it is very worthwhile, the translations from Milton are wonderful, but people who have read Cowper and want a book of his poetry will not be getting what they expected, and people who have not read Cowper and order it will not being getting poetry that is a true reflection of his best qualities as a poet. If you are thinking of ordering it and click on the image to look inside you will see that the table of contents are for "Part Second," but why, if the title says, "The complete poetical works of William Cowper, esq.," would most people suspect that it wasn't the completel poetical works of William Cowper? You think you know the contents will include "The Task" and "The Poplar Field" and "Epitaph on a Hare" etc. and that you have no reason to make sure the title isn't accurate. My rating reflects my disappointment with this experience and does not reflect my opinion of Cowper's poetry.

There are three points that should be made about this book:

1) It is not the complete poetical works, but only the second volume of same.

2) The type is small and hard to read (it is a facsimile of a much older edition).

3) The spine reads in full "Michigan Historical Reprint Series", without author's name or title.

As to the contents, Cowper's hymns (several of which are still sung) are generally excellent, with many memorable lines. They are not, however, the epitome of poetry. The translations from Guion [Guyon] are the standard; they capture the spirit of Guyon and are appropriately devotional; they do, however, contain too much padding. It is interesting to note that Cowper, a Calvinist, translated a Quietist: and one sees the surprising kinship of the two.

OK, so I now have the collection of Cowper's works. I'm glad for that.

But the University of Michigan, who assembled and published this book, did poor job on two aesthetic fronts:

1) The spine is just wrong. Why doesn't the spine actually have the TITLE? Who wants a resoruce on their library bookshelf that has an irrelevant title such as "Michigan Historical Reprint Series"?

2) The photo-reproduction of original pages from some other source is OK, but the size is disproportionate to the paper size, in my opinion. Seems to me this could have been OCR'd and proofed by undergraduate English majors and made a whole lot more attractive.