of poetry, that a rapid passage between old and new, like rapid alteration of the eye's focus in looking at the landscape, will always be wearisome and hurtful to the sense of beauty. The poems have been therefore distributed into books corresponding, I, to the ninety years closing about 1616; II, thence to 1700; III, to 1800; IV, to the half century just ended. Or, looking at the poets who more or less give each portion its distinctive character, they might be called the books of Shakespeare, Milton, Gray, and Wordsworth. The volume in this respect, so far as the limitations of its range allow, accurately reflects the natural growth and evolution of our poetry. A rigidly chronological sequence, however, rather fits a collection aiming at instruction than at pleasure, and the wisdom which comes through pleasure; within each book the pieces have therefore been arranged in gradations of feeling or subject. And it is hoped that the contents of this Anthology will thus be found to present a certain unity, "as episodes," in the noble language of Shelley, "to that great poem which all poets, like the coöperating thoughts of one great mind, have built up since the beginning of the world." 1 As he closes his long survey the editor trusts he may add without egotism that he has found the vague general verdict of popular fame more just than those have thought, who, with too severe a criticism, would confine judgments on poetry to "the selected few of many generations." Not many appear to have gained reputation without some gift or performance that, in due degree, deserved it; and if no verses by certain writers who show less strength than sweetness, or more thought than mastery of expression, are printed in this volume, it should not be imagined that they have been excluded without much hesitation and regret, far less that they have been slighted. Throughout this vast and pathetic array of singers now silent, few have been honored with the name poet, and have not possessed a skill in words, a sympathy with beauty, a tenderness of feeling, or seriousness in reflection, which render their works although never perhaps attaining that loftier and finer excellence here required — better worth reading than much of what fills the scanty hours that 1 From "A Defense of Poetry," by the English lyrical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. See A. S. Cook's edition (Ginn and Company), p. 23. most men spare for self-improvement, or for pleasure in any of its more elevated and permanent forms. And if this be true of even mediocre poetry, for how much more are we indebted to the best! Like the fabled fountain of the Azores,1 but with a more various power, the magic of this art can confer on each period of life its appropriate blessing: on early years, experience; on maturity, calm; on age, youthfulness. Poetry gives treasures more golden than gold," leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world, and interpreting to us the lessons of nature. But she speaks best for herself. Her true accents, if the plan has been executed with success, may be heard throughout the following pages; wherever the poets of England are honored, wherever the dominant language of the world is spoken, it is hoped that they will find fit audience. 1861 Some poems, especially in Book I, have been added, — either on better acquaintance, in deference to critical suggestions, or unknown to the editor when first gathering his harvest. For aid in these after-gleanings he is specially indebted to the excellent reprints of rare early verse given us by Dr. Hannah, Dr. Grosart, Mr. Arber, Mr. Bullen,2 and others; and (in regard to the additions of 1883) to the advice of that distinguished friend, by whom the final choice has been so largely guided. The text has also been carefully revised from authoritative sources. It has still seemed best, for many reasons, to retain the original limit by which the selection was confined to those then no longer living. But the editor hopes that, so far as in him lies, a complete and definitive collection of our best lyrics, to the central year of this fast-closing century, is now offered. 1883-1890-1891 1 The editors have been unable to locate this reference. [PALGRAVE] 2 Noted English scholars and anthologists, the first two of whom died before 1911. 3 Lord Tennyson. Εἰς τὸν λειμῶνα καθίσας, Sitting in the meadow he gathered spoil of flowers, plucking one after another, with happy heart. Euripides, Fragment 754 THE GOLDEN TREASURY BOOK FIRST The Elizabethan poetry, as it is rather vaguely termed, forms the substance of this Book, which contains pieces from Wyat, under Henry VIII, to Shakespeare midway through the reign of James I, and Drummond, who carried on the early manner to a still later period. There is here a wide range of style,— from simplicity expressed in a language hardly yet broken-in to verse, through the pastoral fancies and Italian conceits of the strictly Elizabethan time, to the passionate reality of Shakespeare; yet a general uniformity of tone prevails. Few readers can fail to observe the natural sweetness of the verse, the singlehearted straightforwardness of the thoughts; nor less, the limitation of subject to the many phases of one passion, which then characterized our lyrical poetry, unless when, as in especial with Shakespeare, the "purple light of love "1 is tempered by a spirit of sterner reflection. For the didactic verse of the century, although lyrical in form, yet very rarely rises to the pervading emotion, the golden cadence, proper to the lyric. It should be observed that this and the following summaries apply in the main to the collection here presented, in which (besides its restriction to lyrical poetry) a strictly representative or historical anthology has not been aimed at. Great excellence, in human art as in human character, has from the beginning of things been even more uniform than mediocrity, by virtue of the closeness of its approach to nature; and so far as the standard of excellence kept in view has been attained in this volume, a comparative absence of extreme contemporary phases in style, a similarity of tone and manner, will be found throughout, something neither modern nor ancient, but true and speaking to the heart of man alike throughout all ages.—Transferred from Palgrave's Notes. I SPRING Spring, the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king; 1 For this phrase see infra, p. 171, Gray's "Progress of Poesy." I |