The Golden Treasury

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Title: The Golden Treasury
Of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language
Author: Various
Release Date: September 9, 2006 [EBook #19221]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
GOLDEN TREASURY ***
Produced by James Tenison
THE GOLDEN TREASURY
Of the best Songs and Lyrical Pieces
In the English Language
Selected by Francis Turner Palgrave
Illustrated by A. Pearse
London and Glasgow
Collins' Clear-Type Press
DEDICATION
To

ALFRED TENNYSON
POET LAUREATE.
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, whilst Poetry retains her hold on the
minds of Englishmen, are not likely to be forgotten.
Your encouragement, given while traversing the wild scenery of Treryn
Dinas, led me to begin the work; and it has been completed under your
advice and assistance. For the favour now asked I have thus a second
reason: and to this I may add, the homage which is your right as Poet,
and the gratitude due to a Friend, 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 and exalted pleasure; a
source of animation to friends when they meet; and able to sweeten
solitude itself with best society,--with the companionship of the wise
and the good, with the beauty which the eye cannot see, and the music
only heard in silence. If this Collection proves a store-house of delight
to Labour and to Poverty,--if it teaches those indifferent to the Poets to
love them, and those who love them to love them more, the aim and the
desire entertained in framing it will be fully accomplished.
F.T.P.
May, 1861.
PREFACE.
This little Collection differs, it is believed, from others in the attempt

made to include in it all the best original Lyrical pieces and Songs in
our language, by writers not living,--and none beside the best. Many
familiar verses will hence be met with; many also which should be
familiar:--the Editor will regard as his fittest readers those who love
Poetry so well, that he can offer them nothing not already known and
valued. For those who take up the book in a serious and scholarly spirit,
the following remarks on the plan and the execution are added.
The Editor is acquainted with no strict and exhaustive definition of
Lyrical Poetry; but he has found the task of practical decision increase
in clearness and in facility as he advanced with the work, whilst
keeping in view a few simple principles. Lyrical has been here held
essentially to imply that each Poem shall turn on some single thought,
feeling, or situation. In accordance with this, narrative, descriptive, and
didactic poems,--unless accompanied by rapidity of movement, brevity,
and the colouring of human passion,--have been excluded. Humorous
poetry, except in the very unfrequent instances where a truly poetical
tone pervades the whole, with what is strictly personal, occasional, and
religious, has been considered foreign to the idea of the book. Blank
verse and the ten-syllable couplet, with all pieces markedly dramatic,
have been rejected as alien from what is commonly understood by
Song, and rarely conforming to Lyrical conditions in treatment. But it
is not anticipated, nor is it possible, 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 with perhaps equal justice for a narrative or descriptive
selection: whilst with reference especially to Ballads and Sonnets, the
Editor can only state that he has taken his utmost pains to decide
without caprice or partiality.
This also is all he can plead in regard to a point even more liable to
question;--what degree of merit should give rank among the Best. That
a Poem