William Cowper 

William Cowper  (1731-1800), poet and hymnodist, was a friend of John Newton, with whom he published Olney Hymns in 1779. He suffered from numerous bouts of madness and depression, but found much consolation in evangelical Christianity, although many of his hymns reflect considerable anguish and doubt over the state of his soul. In 1782 he published Poems by William Cowper and in 1785 his most famous work, The Task; his blank verse descriptions of the English countryside and domestic life would later influence the Romantic poets.