Mock-Heroic Innovation: A Close Reading of 'The Task' by William Cowper Isabel Emma Kay College

In The Task, published in 1785, William Cowper evokes the mock-heroic, also known as the mock-epic, through an imitation of the language of the classic epic poets, and syntax or sentence structure, in an attempt (or even a quest) to discover a topic for his poem. The term ‘mock-heroic’ refers to a genre of poetry that “intermeshed a high style with a low content” (Terry, 622), and was used to satirise or diminish something considered ‘high brow’ by placing it on the same level, through syntax, as something ‘low’. A major example of this form in use would be Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. Throughout the extract from Book I, Cowper uses linguistic devices like imagery and metaphor, but also poetic form to allude to the epic, but his manipulation of syntax - particularly juxtaposition - reveals the poem to be distinctly mock-heroic. Cowper’s use of the mock-heroic, however, deviates from how it was manipulated by poets before him, revealing the poem to be far less caustic or satirical than previous leading poems in the mock-epic genre. This essay will explore why Cowper uses the mock-heroic, and how his poem differs from the poets that used the form before him.

Cowper’s use of linguistic devices - metaphor, language and...