Poetry gives
treasures
"more golden than
gold," leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world,
and interpreting to us the lessons of Nature.
gold," leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world,
and interpreting to us the lessons of Nature.
Golden Treasury
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 Youthfulness.
Poetry gives treasures "more golden than
gold," leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world,
and interpreting to us the lessons of Nature. But she speaks best for
herself. Her true accents, if the plan has been executed with success,
may be heard throughout the following pages:-wherever the Poets of
England are honoured, wherever the dominant language of the world is
spoken, it is hoped that they will find fit audience.
F. T. PALGRAVE.
THE GOLDEN TREASURY.
FIRST BOOK.
SUMMARY.
The Elizabethan Poetry, as it is rather vaguely termed, forms the
substance of this Book, which contains pieces from Wyat under Henry
VIII. to Shakespeare midway through the reign of James I. , and Drummond
who carried on the early manner to a still later period. There is here a
wide range of style;--from simplicity expressed in a language hardly yet
broken in to verse,--through the pastoral fancies and Italian conceits
of the strictly Elizabethan time,--to the passionate reality of
Shakespeare: yet a general uniformity of tone prevails. Few readers can
fail to observe the natural sweetness of the verse, the single-hearted
straightforwardness of the thoughts:--nor less, the limitation of
subject to the many phases of one passion, which then characterised our
lyrical poetry,--unless when, as with Drummond and Shakespeare, the
"purple light of Love" is tempered by a spirit of sterner reflection.
It should be observed that this and the following Summaries apply in the
main to the Collection here presented, in which (besides its restriction
to Lyrical Poetry) a strictly representative or historical Anthology has
not been aimed at. Great Excellence, in human art as in human character,
has from the beginning of things been even more uniform than Mediocrity,
by virtue of the closeness of its approach to Nature:--and so far as the
standard of Excellence kept in view has been attained in this volume, a
comparative absence of extreme or temporary phases in style, a
similarity of tone and manner, will be found throughout:--something
neither modern nor ancient but true in all ages, and like the works of
Creation perfect as on the first day.
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 Youthfulness.
Poetry gives treasures "more golden than
gold," leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world,
and interpreting to us the lessons of Nature. But she speaks best for
herself. Her true accents, if the plan has been executed with success,
may be heard throughout the following pages:-wherever the Poets of
England are honoured, wherever the dominant language of the world is
spoken, it is hoped that they will find fit audience.
F. T. PALGRAVE.
THE GOLDEN TREASURY.
FIRST BOOK.
SUMMARY.
The Elizabethan Poetry, as it is rather vaguely termed, forms the
substance of this Book, which contains pieces from Wyat under Henry
VIII. to Shakespeare midway through the reign of James I. , and Drummond
who carried on the early manner to a still later period. There is here a
wide range of style;--from simplicity expressed in a language hardly yet
broken in to verse,--through the pastoral fancies and Italian conceits
of the strictly Elizabethan time,--to the passionate reality of
Shakespeare: yet a general uniformity of tone prevails. Few readers can
fail to observe the natural sweetness of the verse, the single-hearted
straightforwardness of the thoughts:--nor less, the limitation of
subject to the many phases of one passion, which then characterised our
lyrical poetry,--unless when, as with Drummond and Shakespeare, the
"purple light of Love" is tempered by a spirit of sterner reflection.
It should be observed that this and the following Summaries apply in the
main to the Collection here presented, in which (besides its restriction
to Lyrical Poetry) a strictly representative or historical Anthology has
not been aimed at. Great Excellence, in human art as in human character,
has from the beginning of things been even more uniform than Mediocrity,
by virtue of the closeness of its approach to Nature:--and so far as the
standard of Excellence kept in view has been attained in this volume, a
comparative absence of extreme or temporary phases in style, a
similarity of tone and manner, will be found throughout:--something
neither modern nor ancient but true in all ages, and like the works of
Creation perfect as on the first day.
