PREFACE. THE object of the present volume is threefold. Its compiler desired first, to bring into public notice many talented writers whose productions seemed to him to promise a favourable reception by the general reader; secondly, to present, in a compact form, some meritorious lyrics which, from time to time, recorded some important national event; and thirdly, to mingle with those two former classes of poetry some wellknown standard poems, for the introduction of which in a miscellaneous collection of verse, he thinks, no apology is needed. Should it be urged that the book savours too much of the "Cypress," it may be replied, that no work can be unacceptable which brings before the mind's eye the solemn end of life's journey towards which we are ALL so rapidly hastening. The compiler tenders his best thanks to those Authors who have so generously permitted him the use of their respective pieces. He much regrets his inability to trace the authorship of some two or three lyrics—and the more so, as they are in every respect, compositions of which any writer might well be proud. Where he has been unable to obtain the requisite permission, from ignorance of the Author's whereabouts or ownership of copyright, he hopes he will be treated as liberally as if he had done so. The compiler sincerely trusts that the perusal of the several Poems here presented may afford the reader as much satisfaction and pleasure as the task of selection has given him. His design completed, he would send it forth to the world, in the, as he ventures to think, appropriate words of Montaigne:-" I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that binds them." Gloucester, May 26th, 1864. |