PREFACE. THE present edition of the Poetical Works of THOMAS HOOD is by far the most complete that has yet appeared, and will be followed by a collection of his Prose Works in a similar style. Though very many poems have been here brought together from sources overlooked by his former editors, nothing has been admitted that will detract from the fame of one whom a critic of kindred but severer genius describes as "the delightful humorist," who in society was "so grave, and sad, and silent, that you were astonished to recognize in him the outpourer of a thousand wild fancies, the detector of the inmost springs of pathos, and the powerful vindicator of poverty and toil before the hearts of the prosperous." The reputation of HooD as a poet and humorist has increased with every year since his decease. As a humorous poet, indeed, there is no one similar or second to him. This is the judgment of a circle of readers daily enlarging, and as various as mankind. There is nothing in the language more touching than his pathos, more genial than his humor, more polished and keen than his satire. For twenty years he lavished this satire, humor and pathos with a prodigality that knew no bounds, and for this very prodigality the world undervalued till it had lost him. Popular as he was in his latter years, in his life-time he was but half appreciated, and it is only since his death that he has challenged his position in the foremost line of the world's humorists. NEW YORK, March 1, 1860. |