I'

NOTE.

T is not without regret that we have omitted from our selection many beautiful examples in this kind which have the rank of classics in the lyric art. We have done it because they are so generally known and so easily accessible, especially in Palgrave's "Golden Treasury," ‚”—the best of all anthologies. But we could not deny ourselves a few of these, nor a few of Shakspere's sonnets, where we craved a double score. We trust that our selection has the merits of freshness and genuine feeling and true poetry in the main. If personal considerations have included some not equal to these standards, the indulgence of the reader for them is herewith desired. Our deliberate gleanings, though near and far, have yielded us few poems in comparison with our happy memories of much-loved things. The little we have trenched on previous anthologies is justified by the lover's right of eminent domain.

While giving authors' names in full in the table of contents, we have with the separate poems sometimes used other forms when they have a more familiar sound. Our gratitude is due, and is hereby expressed, for the kindness of many authors and publishers in allowing us the use of their poems and their publications: to Charles Scribner's Sons for the poems of Eugene Field and Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge; to Roberts Brothers for Emily Dickinson's and many others; and especially to Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., on whose editions of various poets, both American and English, we have drawn with no illiberal hand.

BROOKLYN, May 5, 1891.