William Cowper (1731-1800)

Written in a Quarrel

Eighteenth-Century Love Complaint

Typical courtly love structure: speaker pleading with beloved, using formal language of persuasion.

Think, Delia, with what cruel haste
Our fleeting pleasures move,

Fleeting Pleasures

Metaphor of time moving quickly. Pleasure is temporary, almost slipping away before it can be fully experienced.

Nor heedless thus in sorrow waste
The moments due to love.
Be wise, my fair, and gently treat
These few that are our friends;
Think, thus abus'd, what sad regret
Their speedy flight attends!
Sure in those eyes I lov'd so well,
And wish'd so long to see,
Anger I thought could never dwell,
Or anger aim'd at me.
No bold offence of mine I knew
Should e'er provoke your hate;
And, early taught to think you true,
Still hop'd a gentler fate.

Emotional Negotiation

Classic rhetorical move of preventing total relationship breakdown by appealing to shared vulnerability.

With kindness bless the present hour,
Or oh! we meet in vain!
What can we do in absence more
Than suffer and complain?
Fated to ills beyond redress,

Stoic Acceptance

Philosophical resignation typical of Enlightenment poetry—acknowledging human limitations with rational calm.

We must endure our woe;
The days allow'd us to possess,
'Tis madness to forgo.
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Anatomy of an Eighteenth-Century Lover's Quarrel

Cowper's poem reveals the delicate social choreography of romantic conflict in the 1700s. The speaker uses rational persuasion instead of emotional outburst, attempting to restore harmony through careful rhetoric.

The poem's structure mirrors the negotiation: each stanza presents a logical argument about preserving their relationship, moving from emotional plea to philosophical acceptance. Cowper demonstrates the Enlightenment ideal of controlling passion through reason.

Temporal Anxiety in Romantic Poetry

Central to the poem is an acute awareness of time's transience. Cowper suggests that quarrels waste the limited moments lovers have together. This reflects broader 18th-century anxieties about mortality and the brevity of human connection.

Notice how the poem transforms from specific romantic tension to universal philosophical statement. The final stanza becomes a meditation on human endurance, moving beyond personal conflict to a broader statement about human resilience.