ABSTRACT
Cowper was related to the family of Donne and had dealings with the poet's descendants. He several times alluded to Donne as a kinsman and fellow-poet. All the following references are addressed to relatives with whom he evidently shared an interest in their common forebear. The first occurs in a letter to Mrs Bodham written from Weston, 27 February I790. Mrs Bodham's maiden name was Anne Donne; she was Cowper's cousin, daughter of his mother's brother, the Rev. Roger Donne, and had seemingly sent him a picture of his mother (The Correspondence oj William Cowper, ed. T. Wright, I904, iii, pp. 434-5). The second item is from a letter to John Johnson dated 3I July I790, inviting him to visit (Correspondence, iii, p. 478). Cowper's sonnet 'Kinsman belov' d', from which the third extract is taken, was also addressed to Jolmson; it expresses gratitude for the gift of a bust of Homer, which had none the less caused the poet grief as well as joy.
