[339-8] England’s. The old name Albion, which means white, is still used in poetry. Just how the name originated no one knows. Perhaps it alluded to the white chalk cliffs of England which the Gauls could see.
[339-9] Cowper’s father died in 1756; his mother in 1737.
[339-10] Me is repeated for emphasis; it is the object of drive: “Howling blasts drive me out of the straight line,” is what the lines mean.
[339-11] Cowper was too strongly conscious of his weakness and his difference from other men. He wrote in a letter to a friend, “Certainly I am not an absolute fool, but I have more weaknesses than the greatest of all the fools I can recollect at present. In short, if I was as fit for the next world as I am unfit for this,—and God forbid I should speak of it in vanity,—I would not change conditions with any saint in Christendom.”
[339-12] “That thou art safe, and that he is safe.”
[339-13] Cowper descended from ancient and high lineage on both sides.
THOSE EVENING BELLS
By Thomas Moore
Those evening bells! those evening bells.
How many a tale their music tells,
Of youth, and home, and that sweet time
When last I heard their soothing chime!