The voices / 51 fragments

Abraham Cowley

1618 AD — 1667 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

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Historical source references

The Motto
Friendship in Absence
On the Death of Mr
On the Death of Crashaw
From Anacreon, ii
From Anacreon, vii
The Mistress
The Waiting Maid
Davideis
Of Solitude, xi
Of Solitude, vii
The Garden, i
The Garden, ii
Horace
Virgil, Georgics
The Prophet
Discourse concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell
Discourse xi
Printed citation: Cowley
Page 238 · printed citation: Abraham Cowley, 1618-1667 (Life)
Page 476 · printed citation: Cowley · subject: REASON—REASONS
Page 646 · printed citation: Cowley · subject: VISIONS
Page 94 · printed citation: Cowley · subject: Fortune
Page 100 · printed citation: Cowley · subject: Glory
Printed page 615 · quotation 10 · Abraham Cowley · The Wish

Archive entries

01c. 1642 AD

What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own?

Abraham Cowley / quote

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02c. 1642 AD

His time is forever, everywhere his place.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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03c. 1642 AD

We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine, But search of deep philosophy, Wit, eloquence, and poetry; Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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04c. 1642 AD

His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I 'm sure, was in the right.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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05c. 1642 AD

The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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06c. 1642 AD

Fill all the glasses there, for why Should every creature drink but I? Why, man of morals, tell me why?

Abraham Cowley / quote

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07c. 1642 AD

A mighty pain to love it is, And 't is a pain that pain to miss; But of all pains, the greatest pain It is to love, but love in vain.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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08c. 1642 AD

Hope, of all ills that men endure, The only cheap and universal cure.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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09c. 1642 AD

Th' adorning thee with so much art Is but a barb'rous skill; 'T is like the pois'ning of a dart, Too apt before to kill.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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10c. 1642 AD

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now does always last.

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11c. 1642 AD

When Israel was from bondage led, Led by the Almighty's hand From out of foreign land, The great sea beheld and fled.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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12c. 1642 AD

An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair, And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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13c. 1642 AD

The monster London laugh at me.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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14c. 1642 AD

Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, And all the fools that crowd thee so, Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, A village less than Islington wilt grow, A solitude almost.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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15c. 1642 AD

The fairest garden in her looks, And in her mind the wisest books.

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16c. 1642 AD

God the first garden made, and the first city Cain.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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17c. 1642 AD

Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all, Both the great vulgar and the small.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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18c. 1642 AD

Charm'd with the foolish whistling of a name.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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19c. 1642 AD

Words that weep and tears that speak.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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20c. 1642 AD

We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blush'd before.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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21c. 1642 AD

Thus would I double my life's fading space; For he that runs it well, runs twice his race.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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22Undated

Heaven bestows / At home all riches that wise Nature needs.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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23Undated

If heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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24Undated

If we engage into a large acquaintance and various familiarities, we set open our gates to the invaders of most of our time.

Abraham Cowley / quote

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Abraham Cowley

Archive entries

Read further

Meditations

Tao Te Ching

The Prophet