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Successors such as Wordsworth and Coleridge admired yet overshadowed William Cowper (1731 1800). Troubled by mental instability, he retreated from both the legal profession and the woman he had hoped to marry, seeking out a quiet existence in the country. In spite of his struggles, he made a translation of Homer's Iliad, produced a considerable body of poetry, and maintained many epistolary contacts. This four-volume biography, compiled by his friend and fellow poet William Hayley (1745 1820), appeared between 1803 and 1806, bringing together selected letters and unpublished poems to...