The Riverside Literature Series SELECTED LYRICS FROM DRYDEN, COLLINS, GRAY, EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES BY CHARLES SWAIN THOMAS, A. M. Head of the English Department in the Educ T Harvard University 798.86.750(219) COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Riverside Press CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS U.S.A PREFACE THIS Volume contains all the poems from Palgrave's Golden Treasury that the National Conference on Uniform Requirements lists for READING. It is a companion volume to my edition of the Palgrave selections from Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley (R. L. S. No. 218), which contains all the Golden Treasury poems that the National Conference lists for STUDY. It is believed teachers will find that the selection and the grouping here made will greatly lighten their task, and facilitate the efforts of the pupils. The book brings into small compass all the selections required for reading, and the assembling of all these lyrics under their proper authors tends, moreover, to bring each poet's work into bolder relief and finer outline. The notes in the two volumes have been prepared with the study and the reading distinction in mind. Difficult. allusions and phrases have been explained in each, but there has been an endeavor to direct a more intense and lingering gaze upon the study requirements. I feel, however, that such poems as Dryden's Song for St. Cecilia's Day or Gray's Bard cannot be read appreciatively without a reasonable amount of study, and I should be loath to make any distinction here between reading and study that would in practice encourage superficiality. In each case the removal of difficulties should simply prepare the way for thorough enjoyment; but in the case of those poems designated for study, the full significance of the theme of the poem, and related themes, likewise, may profitably receive a longer time and a fuller discussion. And this the notes encourage. NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, C. S. T. |