4/21 Probably he had written it in an interval of high spirits between two such moods. Moreover he sometimes exaggerated his own misery. He will begin a letter with a _de profundis_, and towards the end forget his sorrows, glide into commonplace topics, and write about them in the ordinary strain. Lady Austen inspired _John Gilpin_. She did more: she invited Cowper to try his hand at something considerable in blank verse. |