NOTICE OF COPYRIGHTS. I. American poems in this volume within the legal protection of copyright are used by the courteous permission of the owners, either the publishers named in the following list or the authors or their representatives in the subsequent one,-who reserve all their rights. So far as practicable, permission has been secured also for poems out of copyright. 1904. PUBLISHERS OF THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY. Messrs. C. C. BIRCHARD & Co., Boston.-J. V. Cheney: "The Happiest Heart." The BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY, Indianapolis.-J. W. Riley: "The Days Gone By," "Honey Dripping from the Comb," "A Life-Lesson," ," "Little Orphant Annie," "The Man in the Moon." BRENTANOS, New York.-J. H. Boner: "The Light'ood Fire." The CENTURY Co., New York.-T. Jenks: "Small and Early." Messrs. H. T. COATES & COMPANY, Philadelphia.-Ethelinda E. Beers: "Weighing the Baby." Messrs. DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, New York.-W. H. Venable: "The School Girl." The FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, New York.-J. W. Palmer: "Thread and Song." Messrs. HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.-Will Carleton: "Out of the Old House, Nancy;" E. S. Martin: "A Girl of Pompeii:" S. M. Peck: "Dollie," "A Knot of Blue," "My Little Girl." Messrs. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co., Boston.-T. B. Aldrich: "Baby Bell :" Alice Cary: "Pictures of Memory ;" J. F. Clarke: "The Children's Church; R. W. Emerson: "Friendship; " O. W. Holmes: "Bill and Joe," "The Boys" VOL I. HOME etc. xxxi 66 66 Lucy Larcom: "By the Fireside; "H. W. Longfellow: "Beware!" The Household Sovereign," Maidenhood," 66 My Lost Youth," "The Day is Done,' "There was a Little Girl," "The Village Blacksmith;" J. R. Lowell: "The Heritage," "She Came and Went," "Winter Evening Hymn to My Fire;" Nora Perry: "Riding Down;" Annie D. G. Robinson: "Two Pictures" F. D. Sherman: "The Shadows;" H. van Dyke: "The Child in the Garden;" J. G. Whittier: "The Barefoot Boy," "Benedicite, "In School Days," "A New England Home in Winter." MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE, New York.-Harriet W. Durbin: "The Little Dutch Garden." The OUTLOOK COMPANY, New York.-H. van Dyke: "A Wayfaring Song." Messrs. SMALL, MAYNARD & Co., Boston.--B. Carman: "Spring Song." Messrs M. WITMARK & SONS, New York.-E. D. Barker: "Go Sleep, Ma Honey." II. American poems in this volume by the authors whose names are given below are the copyrighted property of the authors, or of their representatives named in parenthesis, and may not be reprinted without their permission, which for the present work has been courteously granted. 1904. PUBLISHERS OF THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY. Charles T. Brooks (Mrs. Harriet Lyman Brooks); Mary A. De Vere; 0. Herford; Margaret T. Janvier; J. E. Rankin; Annie R. Stillman. YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE POETS. BY WILLIAM DARNALL MACCLINTOCK. WHEN it comes to poetry all of us are equally young and gay. The only thing your older friend, the critic, has a right to do is to run ahead, calling and beckoning you to fine pleasures a little higher up or over the hill. Why then does he urge you to read for yourself these goodly volumes of poetry? For pleasure. The poets write first of all not to teach us, but to give us pleasure. If you will read them happily you will like them, you will remember and delight to say over their great lines. They will take you to a bright, romantic world of interesting people and places, where everything is choice, well arranged, full of warmth, of color, of movement, and where even sad things are sweet. That is almost enough; for he who gives you joy wherein you know you are not abusing some sacred faculty nor taking joy from some one else, brings a gift into whose perfection you need not inquire. But you are now not a mere child, and I trust you care to know something of what is happening in your mind as you enjoy this other-world of the poets. xxxiii. Training the imagination. By all art, but especially by poetry, your imagination will be aroused and cultivated. This means several things. By this faculty we make and see images and pictures. Take for example these pictures: "There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail; There gloom the dark, broad seas.' ... "The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks; The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep -TENNYSON: Ulysses. Do you not, like Odysseus himself, see with your eyes the harbor, the boat ready, and do you not hear him call to his comrades to "Push off and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows"? Such clear, concrete pictures the poets give you everywhere. Sometimes, too, these images are addressed to the ear. Hear this: "bees that soar for bloom High as the highest peak of Furness fells Sometimes they appeal to the taste, as in "lucent syrops tinct with cinnamon.” -KEATS: Eve of St. Agnes. Now the poets make you realize and enjoy these vivid images; you learn through them to recall your own mental pictures, to make them clear and consistent, and to describe them in telling words. |