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Title: The Hundred Best English Poems

Author: Various

Editor: Adam L. Gowans

Release Date: February 15, 2006 [eBook #17768]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUNDRED BEST ENGLISH POEMS***

 

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and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

THE HUNDRED BEST
ENGLISH POEMS

NEW YORK,
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS

THE HUNDRED BEST
ENGLISH POEMS

SELECTED BY ADAM L. GOWANS, M.A.

NEW YORK
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1904,
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

THIS
LITTLE COLLECTION
IS DEDICATED TO
JAMES FITZMAURICE-KELLY, ESQ.
BY THE SELECTOR
AS A SLIGHT MARK OF A
DEEP ADMIRATION

PREFATORY NOTE.

Let me frankly admit, to begin with, that the attractiveness and probable selling qualities of the title of this little book, "The Hundred Best English Poems," proved, when it had been once thought of, too powerful arguments for it to be abandoned. I am fully conscious of the presumption such a title implies in an unknown selector, but at the same time I submit that only a plebiscite of duly qualified lovers of poetry could make a selection that could claim to deserve this title beyond all question, and such a plebiscite is of course impossible. I can claim no more than that my attempt to realize this title is an honest one, and I can assert, without fear of contradiction, that every one of the poems I have included is a "gem of purest ray serene"; that none can be too often read or too often repeated to one's self; that every one of them should be known by heart by every lover of good literature, so that each may become, as it were, a part of his inner being.

I have not inserted any poems by living authors.

I have taken the greatest care with the texts of the poems. The editions followed have been mentioned in every case. I have scrupulously retained the punctuation of these original editions, and only modernized the spelling of the old copies; while I have not ventured to omit any part of any poem. I have not supplied titles of my own, but have adopted those I found already employed in the editions used as models, or, in some of the cases in which I found none, have merely added a descriptive one, such as "Song from 'Don Juan.'"

In conclusion, my very warmest thanks are due to Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd., for permission to include Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar"; to Mr. D. Nutt for permission to insert W. E. Henley's "To R. T. H. B." and "Margaritæ Sorori"; to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. for a like privilege in regard to Browning's "Epilogue," and to Mr. Lloyd Osbourne and Messrs. Chatto & Windus for permission to reproduce Stevenson's "Requiem." Without these poems the volume would have had a much smaller claim to its title than it does possess, slight as that may be. My thanks are also due to the following gentlemen who have kindly allowed me to reproduce copyright texts of non-copyright poems from editions published by them: Messrs. Bickers & Son (Ben Jonson), Messrs. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. (Landor), Messrs. Chatto & Windus (Herrick), Mr. Buxton Forman (Keats and Shelley), Mr. Henry Frowde (Wordsworth), Mr. Alex. Gardner and the Rev. George Henderson, B.D. (Lady Nairne), Messrs. T. C. & E. C. Jack (Burns), Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd. (Clough and Tennyson), Mr. John Murray (Byron), Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. (Browning), Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd. (Coleridge and Hood).

A. L. G.

CONTENTS. PAGE

Anonymous.
1. Madrigal 1
Arnold (1822-1888). 2. The Forsaken Merman 2

Barbauld (1743-1825). 3. Life 10 Browning (1812-1889). 4. Song from "Pippa Passes" 12 5. Song from "Pippa Passes" 12 6. The Lost Mistress 13 7. Home-Thoughts, from the Sea 14 8. Epilogue 15 Burns (1759-1796). 9. The Silver Tassie 17 10. Of a' the Airts 18 11. John Anderson my Jo 19 12. Ae Fond Kiss 20 13. Ye Flowery Banks 21 14. A Red, Red Rose 22 15. Mary Morison 24 Byron (1788-1824). 16. She Walks in Beauty 26 17. Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom 27 18. Song from "The Corsair" 28 19. Song from "Don Juan" 29 Campbell (1777-1844). 20. Hohenlinden 35 Clough (1819-1861). 21. Say not the Struggle Nought Availeth 37 Coleridge (1772-1834). 22. Youth and Age 38 Collins (1721-1759). 23. Written in the Year 1746 41 Cowper (1731-1800). 24. To a Young Lady 42 Cunningham (1784-1842). 25. A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea 43 Davenant (1606-1668). 26. Song 45 Dryden (1631-1700). 27. A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687 46 Goldsmith (1728-1774). 28. Song 50 Gray (1716-1771). 29. Elegy written in a Country Church-yard 51 Henley (1849-1903). 30. To R. T. H. B. 59 31. I. M. Margaritæ Sorori 60 Herbert (1593-1632). 32. Virtue 62 Herrick (1591-1674). 33. To the Virgins, to make much of Time 63 34. To Anthea, who may command him anything 64 Hood (1798-1845). 35. The Death Bed 66 36. The Bridge of Sighs 67 37. I Remember, I Remember 72 Jonson (1573-1637). 38. To Celia 74 Keats (1795-1821). 39. On first looking into Chapman's Homer 75 40. Ode to a Nightingale 76 41. Ode on a Grecian Urn 80 42. To Autumn 83 43. Ode on Melancholy 85 44. La Belle Dame sans Merci 87 45. Sonnet 90 Lamb (1775-1834). 46. The Old Familiar Faces 92 Landor (1775-1864). 47. The Maid's Lament 94 Lovelace (1618-1658). 48. To Lucasta. Going to the Wars 96 Milton (1608-1674). 49. On the Morning of Christ's Nativity 97 50. L'Allegro 112 51. Il Penseroso 119 52. Lycidas 127 53. On his Blindness 137 Nairine (1766-1845). 54. The Land o' the Leal 138 Pope (1688-1744). 55. Ode on Solitude 140 Raleigh (1552-1618). 56. The Night before his Death 142 Rogers (1763-1855). 57. A Wish 143 Shakespeare (1564-1616). 58. Sonnets. XVII. Who will believe my verse? 144 59. XVIII. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 145 60. XXX. When to the sessions 145 61. XXXIII. Full many a glorious morning 146 62. LX. Like as the waves 147 63. LXVI. Tired with all these 148 64. LXXI. No longer mourn 149 65. LXXIII. That time of year 149 66. LXXIV. But be contented 150 67. CVI. When in the chronicle 151 68. CXVI. Let me not to the marriage 152 69. Song from "The Tempest" 152 70. Song from "Measure for Measure" 153 71. Song from "Much Ado about Nothing" 153 72. Song from "Cymbeline" 154 Shelley (1792-1822). 73. Song from "Prometheus Unbound" 156 74. Ode to the West Wind 157 75. The Cloud 161 76. To a Skylark 165 77. Chorus from "Hellas" 171 78. Stanzas. Written in Dejection, near Naples 173 79. The Indian Serenade 176 80. To —— 177 81. To Night 178 Shirley (1596-1666). 82. Song from "Ajax and Ulysses" 181 Southey (1774-1843). 83. Stanzas 183 Stevenson (1850-1894). 84. Requiem 185 Tennyson (1809-1892). 85. Song from "The Miller's Daughter" 186 86. St. Agnes' Eve 187 87. Break, break, break 188 88. Song from "The Princess" 189 89. Song from "The Princess" 191 90. Crossing the Bar 192 Waller (1606-1687). 91. On a Girdle 193 92. Song 194 Wordsworth (1770-1850). 93. She dwelt among the untrodden ways 195 94. She was a Phantom of delight 195 95. Sonnets. Part I.—XXXIII. The world is too much with us 197 96. Part II.—XXXVI. Earth has not anything 198 97. To a Highland Girl, at Inversneyde, upon Loch Lomond 198 98. The Solitary Reaper 202 99. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood 204 Wotton (1568-1639). 100. On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia 215

THE HUNDRED BEST
ENGLISH POEMS. ANONYMOUS.