This little Collection differs, it is believed, from others in the
attempt made to include in it all the best original Lyrical pieces and
Songs in our language, by writers not living,--and none beside the best.
Many familiar verses will hence be met with; many also which should be
familiar:--the Editor will regard as his fittest readers those who love
Poetry so well, that he can offer them nothing not already known and
valued. For those who take up the book in a serious and scholarly
spirit, the following remarks on the plan and the execution are added.
The Editor is acquainted with no strict and exhaustive definition of
Lyrical Poetry; but he has found the task of practical decision increase
in clearness and in facility as he advanced with the work, whilst
keeping in view a few simple principles. Lyrical has been here held
essentially to imply that each Poem shall turn on some single thought,
feeling, or situation. In accordance with this, narrative, descriptive,
and didactic poems,--unless accompanied by rapidity of movement,
brevity, and the colouring of human passion,--have been excluded.
Humorous poetry, except in the very unfrequent instances where a truly
poetical tone pervades the whole, with what is strictly personal,
occasional, and religious, has been considered foreign to the idea of
the book. Blank verse and the ten-syllable couplet, with all pieces
markedly dramatic, have been rejected as alien from what is commonly
understood by Song, and rarely conforming to Lyrical conditions in
treatment. But it is not anticipated, nor is it possible, that all
readers shall think the line accurately drawn. Some poems, as Gray's
_Elegy_, the _Allegro_ and _Penseroso_, Wordsworth's _Ruth_ or
Campbell's _Lord Ullin_, might be claimed with perhaps equal justice for
a narrative or descriptive selection: whilst with reference especially
to Ballads and Sonnets, the Editor can only state that he has taken his
utmost pains to decide without caprice or partiality.
This also is all he can plead in regard to a point even more liable to
question;--what degree of merit should give rank among the Best. That a
Poem shall be worthy of the writer's genius,--that it shall reach a
perfection commensurate with its aim,--that we should require finish in
proportion to brevity,--that passion, colour, and originality cannot
atone for serious imperfections in clearness, unity, or truth,--that a
few good lines do not make a good poem,--that popular estimate is
serviceable as a guidepost more than as a compass,--above all, that
Excellence should be looked for rather in the Whole than in the
Parts,--such and other such canons have been always steadily regarded.
He may however add that the pieces chosen, and a far larger number
rejected, have been carefully and repeatedly considered; and that he has
been aided throughout by two friends of independent and exercised
judgment, besides the distinguished person addressed in the Dedication.
It is hoped that by this procedure the volume has been freed from that
one-sidedness which must beset individual decisions:--but for the final
choice the Editor is alone responsible.
Chalmers' vast collection, with the whole works of all accessible poets
not contained in it, and the best Anthologies of different periods, have
been twice systematically read through: and it is hence improbable that
any omissions which may be regretted are due to oversight. The poems are
printed entire, except in a very few instances (specified in the notes)
where a stanza has been omitted. The omissions have been risked only
when the piece could be thus brought to a closer lyrical unity: and, as
essentially opposed to this unity, extracts, obviously such, are
excluded. In regard to the text, the purpose of the book has appeared to
justify the choice of the most poetical version, wherever more than one
exists: and much labour has been given to present each poem, in
disposition, spelling, and punctuation, to the greatest advantage.
In the arrangement, the most poetically effective order has been
attempted. The English mind has passed through phases of thought and
cultivation so various and so opposed during these three centuries 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. The development of the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven has
been here thought of as a model, and nothing placed without careful
consideration. 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
co-operating thoughts of one great mind, have built up since the
beginning of the world."
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 in 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 honoured 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 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, 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 honoured, wherever the dominant language of the world is
spoken, it is hoped that they will find fit audience.