PREFACE THE selves justified in claiming for the principle which has directed them a certain novelty, at least as far as regards living writers. They have prepared an anthology which aims at being no casual or desultory assemblage of beautiful poems, but one which presents in chronological order examples of the highest attainment, and none but the highest, of the principal Poets of our own age. So great is the wealth of English poetry in this century, so varied its field, so versatile its execution, that the difficulty has been to know how to repress and omit. In making such a selection it has been felt that it was of the highest importance to avoid anything like narrowness of aim, and above all to secure exemption from the prejudices and the partialities of any one school. The Editors believe that they have been scrupulously catholic in their views; they have not undertaken the work in haste, and they are anxious to record that, as far as they are able to learn, there is no living writer of verse, whose works have enjoyed any reputation either in a wide or narrow circle, to whom they have not given their unbiassed consideration, and that, if any names are found to be omitted here, the Editors must take upon themselves the responsibility of having felt obliged to omit them deliberately. There are but two exceptions to the names they have wished to include. An eminent writer whose verse deserves to be no less widely read than is his prose, has declined "to be bound with others in a selection;" and while this is in one sense a great regret to the Editors, it is not wholly without its compensations, since all readers who are aware of the omission of any favourite Poet will of course consider that he, their own Apollo, is the fastidious One who has refused to allow his flowers to be twined in the general garland. The other has succeeded in forgetting the flight of time, and, being therefore unwilling that others should take note of that swift passage of years which blanches even poetic locks, is unwilling to comply with the chronological system which is an essential part of the Editors' plan. The Editors, then, having desired to include, to the best of their judgment, representative pieces from all the verse-writers who may really be called in any high and lasting sense Poets, have been gratified to find that the names have for the most part arranged themselves by a quantitative test in an order which approximately is that in which the public voice has classed the names selected. Not, however, that the test is infallible, or without its exceptions. Moreover, it has not been thought fitting to select from Dramas, since detached passages suffer by division from their context, and hence SIR HENRY TAYLOR is here represented by lyrics alone, of which he has written far too few. The present age has been particularly rich in facetious and fantastic verse, but the Editors of the present selection have only ventured to avail them selves of it sparingly, and where an underlying seriousness of purpose and a close attention to form seemed to give it more than an ephemeral value. Throughout it may be said that a conviction of the enduring qualities of poems and of Poets has been allowed to outweigh a mere sense of brightness or cleverness in workmanship. The Editors have been particularly struck, in reading a very large number of volumes of verse for the purpose in hand, with the excellent manner in which much is now-a-days said, which in its essence is scarcely worth the saying, and they have not considered that such pieces, though in themselves at times exquisite, are likely to be of permanent value. It would have swelled the book beyond all reasonable limits to have included in it the masterpieces of contemporary American poetry. Literature on the other side of the Atlantic has now extended so considerably in all directions that the Americans may safely be left to prepare their own anthology. It remains only to thank cordially all who have given permission to include their poems, and to apologise for the unavoidable prominence given to these few words of preface, the mere string which has served to tie up our sweet posy. Since these words were written, English literature is the poorer by the loss of a Poet to whom a large space had by right been assigned in the ensuing selection. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI will write no more, and although his name and fame die not, he is unhappily no longer to be classed among living Poets. It is with a sad satisfaction that the Editors mention the graceful courtesy with which he not merely acceded to their request to include several of his poems, but interested himself in their work. |