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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 andprobable selling qualities of the title of this little book, "TheHundred Best English Poems," proved, when it had been once thought of,too powerful arguments for it to be abandoned. I am fully conscious ofthe presumption such a title implies in an unknown selector, but atthe same time I submit that only a plebiscite of duly qualified loversof poetry could make a selection that could claim to deserve thistitle beyond all question, and such a plebiscite is of courseimpossible. I can claim no more than that my attempt to realize thistitle is an honest one, and I can assert, without fear ofcontradiction, that every one of the poems I have included is a "gemof purest ray serene"; that none can be too often read or too oftenrepeated to one's self; that every one of them should be known byheart by every lover of good literature, so that each may become, asit 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. Theeditions followed have been mentioned in every case. I havescrupulously retained the punctuation of these original editions, andonly modernized the spelling of the old copies; while I have notventured to omit any part of any poem. I have not supplied titles ofmy own, but have adopted those I found already employed in theeditions used as models, or, in some of the cases in which I foundnone, have merely added a descriptive one, such as "Song from 'DonJuan.'"
In conclusion, my very warmest thanks are due to Messrs. Macmillan &Co., Ltd., for permission to include Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar"; toMr. 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 likeprivilege in regard to Browning's "Epilogue," and to Mr. LloydOsbourne and Messrs. Chatto & Windus for permission to reproduceStevenson's "Requiem." Without these poems the volume would have had amuch smaller claim to its title than it does