Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON A MISTAKE IN HIS TRANSLATION OF HOMER by WILLIAM COWPER

Poet Analysis

First Line: COWPER HAD SINNED WITH SOME EXCUSE
Last Line: WHEN HE TRANSLATED HOMER.
Subject(s): TRANSLATING & INTERPRETING;

COWPER had sinned with some excuse,
If, bound in rhyming tethers,
He had committed this abuse
Of changing ewes for wethers.

But male for female is a trope,
A rather bold misnomer,
That would have startled even Pope,
When he translated Homer.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net