The Task a Poem Illustr by B Foster Author:William Cowper General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1878 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. DESIGNED BY l; lllKKT FOSTER. ENGRAVED ON WOOD AND IMtlNTED HY EDMUND EVANS. $ooli | irst -- ®| ic TACK Vignettk. -- Argument To Book First. 1 Vignette Title To The Sofa. 3 - The rural wiilk through lanes Of grassy swarth, clone cropp'd by nibbling sheep, And skirted thick with intertextnre f; rm Of thorny bonghs. 9 The sloping land recedes into the clouds ; Displaying on its varied side the grace Of hedge-row beauties numberless, square tower, Tall spire, from which the sound of cheerful bulls Just nndulates upon the list'ning ear : (Jroves, heaths, and smoking villages, romoto. 11 But cawing rooks, and kites that swim sublime In still repeated circles, screaming loud, The jay, the pie, and e'en the boding owl, That hails the rising moon, have charms for me. 13 A cottage, whither oft we since repair : 'Tis perch'd upon the green hill-top, but close Environ'd with a ring of branching elms, That overhang the thatch, itself unseen Peeps at the vale below. 15 1MOE Not distant far, a length of colonnade Invites us. 17 Descending now (but cautious, lest too fast) A sudden steep upon a rustic bridge, Ve pass a gulf, in which the willows dip Their pendent boughs, stooping as if to driuk. 18 The summit gain'd, behold the proud alcove That crowns it! 19 The shecpfold hero Pours out its fleecy tenants o'er the glebe. 21 The grove receives us next; Between the upright shafts of whose tall elms We may discern the thresher at his task. 24 The lark is gay, That dries his feathers, saturate with dew, Hencath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams Of da...« less