The mystery book

Last Sunday, when my friends from Atlanta Georgia were in town, we rode the London Eye. To describe the London Eye, I’d have to say that it’s a big bicycle wheel, with 20 foot long pods all around the perimeter. First you wait in a half-hour long line, after that you get into the pods, on the ride you sit, or stand in the pod for 30 minutes while the pod goes round, kind of like a giant Ferris-wheel. In the pod we sat and looked out over the tops of all the buildings, we also had a contest as to who could name the most landmarks, I won with 11 total monuments. After we had ridden the eye, we went down to Wagamama (an incredibly good noodle restaurant) for lunch, to anyone who goes there I recommend the peach ice tea. So anyway, after a great lunch we headed down to the Tate modern. It was a sunny day, so we took our time getting there on the 20 minute walk on the side of the river Thames (pronounced t-ame-s). What we were walking on was not the actual bank of the river Thames, but a boardwalk on the side of the river, with street vendors and performers everywhere. While we were walking we stopped by an outdoor used book sale, there, lying in a discarded row of old books sat the most magical book of all, I was drawn to its musty smell, and old, beautiful cover. There in front of me sat William Cowper’s Complete Poetical Works, published in 1853! Here is a poem by Sir William Cowper himself:

The Maze
From left to right, and to and fro,
Caught in a labyrinth you go,
And turn, and turn, and turn again,
To solve the mystery, but in vain;
Stand still, and breathe, and take from me
A clue, that soon shall set you free!
Not Ariadne, if you meet her,
Herself could serve you with a better.
You enter’d easily-find where-
And make with ease your exit there!

I know the grammar is a little bit shaky, but I just guess that’s just how the wrote back in the 1780s (I know the book was published in 1853, but William Cowper was born in 1731, and died in 1800, so the book was published 53 years from his death). I chose to show this poem, because it is about my personal favorite Greek myth, that of Theseus and the Labyrinth.

P.S.
In case you want to tell anyone about William Cowper, read his poem aloud, or just say his name for the fun of it, it is pronounced William C-ou-per! I know this because his poems were so interesting we looked him up on Google, and found a wikipedia entry on him. Here is a link to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper.

P.P.S.
Although he is an obscure, unknown poet today, back in the 1800s he was very popular. He wrote many poems, most about nature, or evil. Many historians believe this is because he had multiple mid-life crises. His only solaces were in writing poetry, and evangelical Christianity!