Golden Treasury Selected from the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language and arranged with Notes , livre ebook

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pubOne.info present you this wonderfully illustrated edition. This book in its progress has recalled often to my memory a man with whose friendship we were once honoured, to whom no region of English Literature was unfamiliar, and who, whilst rich in all the noble gifts of Nature, was most eminently distinguished by the noblest and the rarest, - just judgment and high-hearted patriotism. It would have been hence a peculiar pleasure and pride to dedicate what I have endeavoured to make a true national Anthology of three centuries to Henry Hallam. But he is beyond the reach of any human tokens of love and reverence; and I desire therefore to place before it a name united with his by associations which, while Poetry retains her hold on the minds of Englishmen, are not likely to be forgotten.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819946366
Langue	English

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THE GOLDEN TREASURY
SELECTED FROM THE BEST SONGS AND LYRICAL POEMSIN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND ARRANGED WITH NOTES
BY
FRANCIS T. PALGRAVE
LATE PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OFOXFORD
REVISED AND ENLARGED

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1902
TO
ALFRED TENNYSON
POET LAUREATE
This book in its progress has recalled often to mymemory a man with whose friendship we were once honoured, to whomno region of English Literature was unfamiliar, and who, whilstrich in all the noble gifts of Nature, was most eminentlydistinguished by the noblest and the rarest, — just judgment andhigh-hearted patriotism. It would have been hence a peculiarpleasure and pride to dedicate what I have endeavoured to make atrue national Anthology of three centuries to Henry Hallam. But heis beyond the reach of any human tokens of love and reverence; andI desire therefore to place before it a name united with his byassociations which, while Poetry retains her hold on the minds ofEnglishmen, are not likely to be forgotten.
Your encouragement, given while traversing the wildscenery of Treryn Dinas, led me to begin the work; and it has beencompleted under your advice and assistance. For the favour nowasked I have thus a second reason: and to this I may add, thehomage which is your right as Poet, and the gratitude due to aFriend, whose regard I rate at no common value.
Permit me then to inscribe to yourself a book which,I hope, may be found by many a lifelong fountain of innocent andexalted pleasure; a source of animation to friends when they meet;and able to sweeten solitude itself with best society, — with thecompanionship of the wise and the good, with the beauty which theeye cannot see, and the music only heard in silence. If thisCollection proves a store-house of delight to Labour and toPoverty, — if it teaches those indifferent to the Poets to lovethem, and those who love them to love them more, the aim and thedesire entertained in framing it will be fully accomplished.
F. T. P.
May: 1861
PREFACE
This little Collection differs, it is believed, fromothers in the attempt made to include in it all the best originalLyrical pieces and Songs in our language (save a very fewregretfully omitted on account of length), by writers not living, —and none beside the best. Many familiar verses will hence be metwith; many also which should be familiar:— the Editor will regardas his fittest readers those who love Poetry so well, that he canoffer them nothing not already known and valued.
The Editor is acquainted with no strict andexhaustive definition of Lyrical Poetry; but he has found the taskof practical decision increase in clearness and in facility as headvanced with the work, whilst keeping in view a few simpleprinciples. Lyrical has been here held essentially to imply thateach Poem shall turn on some single thought, feeling, or situation.In accordance with this, narrative, descriptive, and didacticpoems, — unless accompanied by rapidity of movement, brevity, andthe colouring of human passion, — have been excluded. Humourouspoetry, except in the very unfrequent instances where a trulypoetical tone pervades the whole, with what is strictly personal,occasional, and religious, has been considered foreign to the ideaof the book. Blank verse and the ten-syllable couplet, with allpieces markedly dramatic, have been rejected as alien from what iscommonly understood by Song, and rarely conforming to Lyricalconditions in treatment. But it is not anticipated, nor is itpossible, that all readers shall think the line accurately drawn.Some poems, as Gray's Elegy, the Allegro and Penseroso,Wordsworth's Ruth or Campbell's Lord Ullin, might be claimed withperhaps equal justice for a narrative or descriptive selection:whilst with reference especially to Ballads and Sonnets, the Editorcan only state that he has taken his utmost pains to decide withoutcaprice or partiality.
This also is all he can plead in regard to a pointeven more liable to question; — what degree of merit should giverank among the Best. That a poem shall be worthy of the writer'sgenius, — that it shall reach a perfection commensurate with itsaim, — that we should require finish in proportion to brevity, —that passion, colour, and originality cannot atone for seriousimperfections in clearness, unity or truth, — that a few good linesdo not make a good poem, that popular estimate is serviceable as aguidepost more than as a compass, — above all, that excellenceshould be looked for rather in the whole than in the parts, — suchand other such canons have been always steadily regarded. He mayhowever add that the pieces chosen, and a far larger numberrejected, have been carefully and repeatedly considered; and thathe has been aided throughout by two friends of independent andexercised judgment, besides the distinguished person addressed inthe Dedication. It is hoped that by this procedure the volume hasbeen freed from that one-sidedness which must beset individualdecisions:— but for the final choice the Editor is aloneresponsible.
Chalmers' vast collection, with the whole works ofall accessible poets not contained in it, and the best Anthologiesof different periods, have been twice systematically read through:and it is hence improbable that any omissions which may beregretted are due to oversight. The poems are printed entire,except in a very few instances where a stanza or passage has beenomitted. These omissions have been risked only when the piece couldbe thus brought to a closer lyrical unity: and, as essentiallyopposed to this unity, extracts, obviously such, are excluded. Inregard to the text, the purpose of the book has appeared to justifythe choice of the most poetical version, wherever more than oneexists; and much labour has been given to present each poem, indisposition, spelling, and punctuation, to the greatestadvantage.
In the arrangement, the most poetically-effectiveorder has been attempted. The English mind has passed throughphases of thought and cultivation so various and so opposed duringthese three centuries of Poetry, that a rapid passage between oldand new, like rapid alteration of the eye's focus in looking at thelandscape, will always be wearisome and hurtful to the sense ofBeauty. The poems have been therefore distributed into Bookscorresponding, I to the ninety years closing about 1616, II thenceto 1700, III to 1800, IV to the half century just ended. Or,looking at the Poets who more or less give each portion itsdistinctive character, they might be called the Books ofShakespeare, Milton, Gray, and Wordsworth. The volume, in thisrespect, so far as the limitations of its range allow, accuratelyreflects the natural growth and evolution of our Poetry. A rigidlychronological sequence, however, rather fits a collection aiming atinstruction than at pleasure, and the wisdom which comes throughpleasure:— within each book the pieces have therefore been arrangedin gradations of feeling or subject. And it is hoped that thecontents of this Anthology will thus be found to present a certainunity, 'as episodes, ' in the noble language of Shelley, 'to thatgreat Poem which all poets, like the co-operating thoughts of onegreat mind, have built up since the beginning of the world. '
As he closes his long survey, the Editor trusts hemay add without egotism, that he has found the vague generalverdict of popular Fame more just than those have thought, who,with too severe a criticism, would confine judgments on Poetry to'the selected few of many generations. ' Not many appear to havegained reputation without some gift or performance that, in duedegree, deserved it: and if no verses by certain writers who showless strength than sweetness, or more thought than mastery ofexpression, are printed in this volume, it should not be imaginedthat they have been excluded without much hesitation and regret, —far less that they have been slighted. Throughout this vast andpathetic array of Singers now silent, few have been honoured withthe name Poet, and have not possessed a skill in words, a sympathywith beauty, a tenderness of feeling, or seriousness in reflection,which render their works, although never perhaps attaining thatloftier and finer excellence here required, — better worth readingthan much of what fills the scanty hours that most men spare forself-improvement, or for pleasure in any of its more elevated andpermanent forms. — And if this be true of even mediocre poetry, forhow much more are we indebted to the best! Like the fabled fountainof the Azores, but with a more various power, the magic of this Artcan confer on each period of life its appropriate blessing: onearly years Experience, on maturity Calm, on age, Youthfulness.Poetry gives treasures 'more golden than gold, ' leading us inhigher and healthier ways than those of the world, and interpretingto us the lessons of Nature. But she speaks best for herself. Hertrue accents, if the plan has been executed with success, may beheard throughout the following pages:— wherever the Poets ofEngland are honoured, wherever the dominant language of the worldis spoken, it is hoped that they will find fit audience.
1861
Some poems, especially in Book I, have been added:—either on better acquaintance; — in deference to criticalsuggestions; — or unknown to the Editor when first gathering hisharvest. For aid in these after-gleanings he is specially indebtedto the excellent reprints of rare early verse given us by Dr.Hannah, Dr. Grosart, Mr. Arber, Mr. Bullen, and others, — and (inregard to the additions of 1883) to the advice of thatdistinguished Friend, by whom the final choice has been so largelyguided. The text has also been carefully revised from authoritativesources. It has still seemed best, for many reasons, to retain theoriginal limit by which the selection was confined to those then nolonger living. But the editor hopes that, so far as in him lies, acomplete and definitive collectio