In his later work, especially his immortal "John Gilpin," Cowper flings fashions aside, gives Pegasus the reins, takes to the open road, and so proves himself a worthy predecessor of Burns, who is the most spontaneous and the most interesting of all the early romanticists.

One night, John Jasper, choir-master in Cloisterham Cathedral, on his way home through the Close, is brought to a standstill by the spectacle of Stony Durdles, dinner-bundle and all, leaning against the iron railing of the burial-ground, while a hideous small boy in rags flings stones at him, in the moonlight.

Ah, 'tis the English in me that loves the soft, gray weather The little mists that trail along like bits of wind-flung foam, The primrose and the violetall wet and sweet together, And the sound of water calling, as it used to call at home.

Here and there a high-flung mound, smooth and oval or capped with ledges of black, glistening rode broke the monotony of the view.

The up-flung trunk was darkly stained and sticky....

The houses in Park Lane, flower-decked, displayed through their wide-flung windows a constant panorama of brilliantly-lit rooms.