The Golden Treasury | Page 2

shall be worthy of the writer's genius,--that it shall reach a
perfection commensurate with its aim,--that we should require finish in
proportion to brevity,--that passion, colour, and originality cannot atone
for serious imperfections in clearness, unity, or truth,--that a few good
lines do not make a good poem,--that popular estimate is serviceable as

a guidepost more than as a compass,--above all, that Excellence should
be looked for rather in the Whole than in the Parts,--such and other
such canons have been always steadily regarded. He may however add
that the pieces chosen, and a far larger number rejected, have been
carefully and repeatedly considered; and that he has been aided
throughout by two friends of independent and exercised judgment,
besides the distinguished person addressed in the Dedication. It is
hoped that by this procedure the volume has been freed from that
one-sidedness which must beset individual decisions:--but for the final
choice the Editor is alone responsible.
Chalmers' vast collection, with the whole works of all accessible poets
not contained in it, and the best Anthologies of different periods, have
been twice systematically read through: and it is hence improbable that
any omissions which may be regretted are due to oversight. The poems
are printed entire, except in a very few instances (specified in the notes)
where a stanza has been omitted. The omissions have been risked only
when the piece could be thus brought to a closer lyrical unity: and, as
essentially opposed to this unity, extracts, obviously such, are excluded.
In regard to the text, the purpose of the book has appeared to justify the
choice of the most poetical version, wherever more than one exists: and
much labour has been given to present each poem, in disposition,
spelling, and punctuation, to the greatest advantage.
In the arrangement, the most poetically effective order has been
attempted. The English mind has passed through phases of thought and
cultivation so various and so opposed during these three centuries of
Poetry, that a rapid passage between Old and New, like rapid alteration
of the eye's focus in looking at the landscape, will always be wearisome
and hurtful to the sense of Beauty. The poems have been therefore
distributed into Books corresponding, I. to the ninety years closing
about 1616, II. thence to 1700, III. to 1800, IV. to the half century just
ended. Or, looking at the Poets who more or less give each portion its
distinctive character, they might be called the Books of Shakespeare,
Milton, Gray, and Wordsworth. The volume, in this respect, so far as
the limitations of its range allow, accurately reflects the natural growth
and evolution of our Poetry. A rigidly chronological sequence, however,

rather fits a collection aiming at instruction than at pleasure, and the
Wisdom which comes through Pleasure:--within each book the pieces
have therefore been arranged in gradations of feeling or subject. The
development of the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven has been
here thought of as a model, and nothing placed without careful
consideration. And it is hoped that the contents of this Anthology will
thus be found to present a certain unity, "as episodes," in the noble
language of Shelley, "to that great Poem which all poets, like the
co-operating thoughts of one great mind, have built up since the
beginning of the world."
As he closes his long survey, the Editor trusts he may add without
egotism, that he has found the vague general verdict 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 have gained reputation without some
gift or performance that, in due degree, deserved it: and if no verses by
certain writers who show less strength than sweetness, or more thought
than mastery in expression, are printed in this volume, it should not be
imagined that they have been excluded without much hesitation and
regret,--far less that they have been slighted. Throughout this vast and
pathetic array of Singers now silent, few have been honoured with the
name Poet, and have not possessed a skill in words, a sympathy with
beauty, a tenderness of feeling, or seriousness in reflection, which
render their works, although never perhaps attaining that loftier and
finer excellence here required,--better worth reading than much of what
fills the scanty hours that most men spare for self-improvement, or for
pleasure in any of its more elevated and permanent forms.
And if this be true of even mediocre poetry, for how much more are we
indebted to the best! Like the fabled fountain of the Azores, but with a
more various power, the magic of this Art can confer on each period of
life its appropriate blessing: on early years Experience, on maturity
Calm, on age