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EDITED

BY

ROSSITER JOHNSON

Does he paint? he fain would write a poem ;
Does he write? he fain would paint a picture,-
Put to proof art alien to the artist's,

Once, and only once, and for One only.

ROBERT BROWNING.

NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1877

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27X197

PREFACE..

There are wide differences in the fame of the poems here collected, as well as in their merits. Some are familiar to everybody who reads poetry at all; others find reputation and perpetuity only with particular classes. A few, like those of Bishop Berkeley and Michael Barry, have been saved from oblivion by a single happy line or quatrain; while the richness and perfection of many leave us in wonder that their authors produced no more. If critical judgment in such matters is worth anything when opposed to a popular verdict, some of these authors have written better poems for no reward at all, than those which have given them fame. However this may be, the present volume is intended to represent popular rather than critical taste, and to include all the poems in the language which fairly come under its title, excepting only those numerous anonymous ballads belonging to the early centuries of our literature, which are preserved in Percy's and other collections. In cases of

doubt, I have generally decided in favor of insertion. It is

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