The Hundred Best English Poems

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Title: The Hundred Best English Poems
Author: Various
Editor: Adam L. Gowans
Release Date: February 15, 2006 [eBook #17768]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
HUNDRED BEST ENGLISH POEMS***
E-text prepared by Brian Sogard, Diane Monico, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/
)
THE HUNDRED BEST ENGLISH POEMS
Selected by
ADAM L. GOWANS, M.A.
[Illustration: Alfred, Lord Tennyson.]
[Illustration]

New York
Thomas Y. Crowell & Company
Publishers
Copyright,
1904,
By Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
THIS
LITTLE COLLECTION
IS DEDICATED TO
JAMES
FITZMAURICE-KELLY, ESQ.
BY THE SELECTOR
AS A
SLIGHT MARK OF A
DEEP ADMIRATION
PREFATORY NOTE.
Let me frankly admit, to begin with, that the attractiveness and
probable selling qualities of the title of this little book, "The Hundred
Best English Poems," proved, when it had been once thought of, too
powerful arguments for it to be abandoned. I am fully conscious of the
presumption such a title implies in an unknown selector, but at the
same time I submit that only a plebiscite of duly qualified lovers of
poetry could make a selection that could claim to deserve this title
beyond all question, and such a plebiscite is of course impossible. I can
claim no more than that my attempt to realize this title is an honest one,
and I can assert, without fear of
contradiction, that every one of the
poems I have included is a "gem of purest ray serene"; that none can be
too often read or too often repeated to one's self; that every one of them
should be known by heart by every lover of good literature, so that each
may become, as it were, a part of his inner being.
I have not inserted any poems by living authors.
I have taken the greatest care with the texts of the poems. The editions
followed have been mentioned in every case. I have scrupulously
retained the punctuation of these original editions, and only modernized
the spelling of the old copies; while I have not ventured to omit any
part of any poem. I have not supplied titles of my own, but have
adopted those I found already employed in the editions used as models,
or, in some of the cases in which I found none, have merely added a
descriptive one, such as "Song from 'Don Juan.'"
In conclusion, my very warmest thanks are due to Messrs. Macmillan
& Co., Ltd., for permission to include Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar";

to Mr. D. Nutt for permission to insert W. E. Henley's "To R. T. H. B."
and "Margaritæ Sorori"; to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. for a like
privilege in regard to Browning's "Epilogue," and to Mr. Lloyd
Osbourne and Messrs. Chatto & Windus for permission to reproduce
Stevenson's "Requiem." Without these poems the volume would have
had a much smaller claim to its title than it does possess, slight as that
may be. My thanks are also due to the following gentlemen who have
kindly allowed me to reproduce copyright texts of non-copyright
poems from editions published by them: Messrs. Bickers & Son (Ben
Jonson), Messrs. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. (Landor), Messrs. Chatto &
Windus (Herrick), Mr. Buxton Forman (Keats and Shelley), Mr. Henry
Frowde (Wordsworth), Mr. Alex. Gardner and the Rev. George
Henderson, B.D. (Lady Nairne), Messrs. T. C. & E. C. Jack (Burns),
Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd. (Clough and Tennyson), Mr. John
Murray (Byron), Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. (Browning), Messrs.
Ward, Lock & Co., Ltd. (Coleridge and Hood).
0. L. G.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
ANONYMOUS.
0. Madrigal 1
ARNOLD (1822-1888).
2. The Forsaken Merman 2
BARBAULD (1743-1825).
3. Life 10
BROWNING (1812-1889).
4. Song from "Pippa Passes"
12
5. Song from "Pippa Passes"
12

6. The Lost Mistress
13
7. Home-Thoughts,