Please give a summary of "On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture" by William Cowper.

This very interesting poem is based around, as the title
suggests, the poet receiving a picture of his mother who had recently died. Looking once
again at the image of his mother allows him to process his grief, remembering happy
times he shared with her whilst at the same time dealing with his feelings of loss and
sadness.

The poem opens with the speaker wishing that the
picture of his mother was real and that she could communicate with him. Even though the
picture can't the "meek intelligence" of his mother's eyes comforts him nonetheless. He
uses the power of "Fancy" to believe that the picture is actually his mother, which
gives him an opportunity to talk to her and ask her questions, checking if she was aware
of her son's grief when he heard that she had died. The speaker expresses his desire to
meet his mother "on that peaceful shore" so that he will experience no grief again,
though he does say that in time he learnt "submission" to his grief at having lost
her.

The next section of the poem talks of the passing of
time, and how their family house is now occupied by another family who do not know them.
Even though this house was a "short lived possession," memory of her acts of kindness
lasts a lot longer, and the poet remembers his mother's kindness and love as expressed
when he was a child. The poet reflects that even if he had the chance to turn back time
and have his mother with him again, he would probably not,
saying:

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...what here we call our life is
such,
So little to be lov'd, and thou so much,
That I should ill
requite thee to constrain
Thy unbound spirit into bonds
again.

The last stanza
reflects on the far better existence that his mother enjoys, and also comments on the
way that this poem has allowed the speaker to re-live his childhood joys and to bid her
farewell, thanks to the arrival of the picture. The rhyming couplet that ends the poem
reflects on the way that death has not robbed him of his mother
entirely:

Time
has but half succeeded in his theft—
Thyself remov'd, thy power to sooth me
left.

It may have taken away
his mother from him, but it certainly has not taken away her power which is bequeathed
to the poet.