William Cowper, Yardley Oak

Neil Curry (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1791

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Pastoral
Poetry (any)

Resources

William Cowper had a great fondness for trees. In Book One of his poem “The Task” he tells us that

No tree in all the grove but has its charms,
Though each its hue peculiar.
(I. 307-308)

And in the twelve lines which follow we have a series of brief but telling observations on nine different trees: the “wannish grey” of the willow, the “deeper green” of the elm, and “deeper still,/ Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak”.

One oak he was particularly fond of was known as the Yardley Oak and grew near the village of Olney in Buckinghamshire where he lived. He would take friends and visitors to see it and, as he confessed in a letter to his cousin, Lady Hesketh, …

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1552 words

Citation: Curry, Neil. "Yardley Oak". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 May 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24352, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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