following of a list made out by others has resulted in a table of contents that does not represent in all cases my own free choice; but I have supplemented the poems recommended by the Conference with others,-all the old ballads, for example, and the poems in playful. mood, in the hope that each user of the volume may find scope in which to choose and reject as he sees fit. These are the conditions, then; and the purpose is to suggest a way of approaching poetry. What this way is may best be understood by examining the plan of editing. In the first place, I have arranged the poems in groups according to subject, or mood, or perhaps form, a grouping that does not attempt to be wholly logical, but one which makes it easy for a reader who has found something that pleases him to look near it for more of the same kind. Is not the natural grouping of poems according to the thing that they express, rather than the writer or literary period that produced them? And is not the transition easier from a sonnet of Shakspere to one of Wordsworth than from Milton's sonnet, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont to L'Allegro or to Lovelace's To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars? In the notes I have had a double purpose. I have tried to make the poems more real by telling how and when certain ones were written, or by recounting such circumstances as associate them interestingly with the lives of their authors. In the case of some of the most important poems I have introduced interpretation comment, the aim of which—such as there is of it— is to be not so much a piecemeal explanation of details as an indication of some significant aspect of the poem as a whole. Even where, as in the longer poems, words and allusions must be explained, I have, whenever convenient, grouped details of a single kind together, so that the unity of impression may be impaired as little as possible. 66 Following the notes are a series of Suggested Studies." These presuppose some familiarity with the poems individually, and point the way toward comparative study. Here generalization enters; and here, consequently, difficulty begins. But in most cases the generalization is either supplied or frankly indicated, and the student's object should be to verify it by the concrete instance. It is of little moment whether the student discovers his generalizations for himself: it is of the greatest importance that he realize that no generalization has meaning or validity for him unless he can test it concretely by his own experience. The studies suggested are few in number, but they can be supplemented or adapted freely at will. Finally comes the "General Survey," in which are reviewed certain of the larger aspects of poetry illustrated by this volume. Its purpose is to lead to some understanding of a few simple principles of poetry, its scope, its varieties, its ways of transmuting life into art. Discussion of these matters in the abstract, as matters of theory, may be plausible and interesting, but is not sufficient. It has seemed to me that consideration of these broader principles, Is it necessary, in view of what has been said, to urge the need of personal tact and judgment in di- recting the study of poetry? If at any point interest fails, that point is the place to stop, or at least to pause and try to discover in what other direction natural interest leads. The poems themselves are the obvious starting-point: among them it is always possible to wander at will, as one seeking the face of a friend in a crowd." If one does not find friends there, nothing is to be gained by trying to "study" poetry. If they are found, however, further intercourse with |