The Poets, by the very necessity of their vocation, are the closest
students of language in any literature. They are the most exacting
in their demands upon the resources of words, and the most careful
of discriminations in their use. "Easy writing's curst hard reading,"
said an English wit; but for the poet there is no such thing as easy
writing. He must "wreak thought upon expression." The veteran Bryant
wrote:
"Thou who wouldst wear the name
Of Poet midst thy brethren of mankind,
And clothe in words of flame
Thoughts that shall live within the general mind,
Deem not the framing of a deathless lay
The pastime of a drowsy summer day.
But gather all thy powers," etc.
The prose-writer should, and the great one does, carefully weigh,
select, and place his words; but the Poet must,--if he is to make
any least claim to the title. Therefore poetical quotations are, as
a rule, more skillfully apt to the purpose of expressing shades of
thought than are the more natural and therefore usually less careful
phrases of prose, even when conveying "thoughts that shall live within
the general mind."
A gathering of poetical quotations is valuable in two ways. It may
afford the most vivid and significant representation of a thought or
feeling for some specific occasion, or it will open to the reader
an alluring field for wandering at will--or even aimlessly, yet with
ever-fresh interest. In case one seeks some particular phrase, some
familiar quotation which is vaguely remembered but desired for more
accurate use, it may easily be that the phrase sought is not among the
assemblage of notable fragments in this volume, but in its own place,
embodied in the poem where it had its origin, in some of the other
volumes of this work. In this volume, however, will be found some
2,700 memorable passages from poems not included in the others. They
are alphabetically arranged under more than 300 appropriate
titles, for general topics; and the "Index of Topics" will show
cross-references to other and kindred themes, so that if desired a
subject may be pursued into thoughts of related interest.
It is hoped that this gathering up of admirable fragments that should
not be lost to familiar use, even though their original sources could
find no proper place in the plan of the work at large, will prove to
be helpfully suggestive, whether to the seeker for specific thoughts
and expressions or to the general appreciative reader.