The Poet Who Emerged from Darkness

In the bitter winter of 1773, William Cowper sat alone in his room in Olney, England, convinced that God had abandoned him forever. The poet and hymn writer had sunk into a depression so severe that he attempted to take his own life. For months, he could not write, could not pray, could scarcely speak. His friend John Newton — the former slave trader who had penned "Amazing Grace" — visited him daily, sitting quietly beside him when words failed them both.…