The first four books bear the stamp of the personality of Palgrave. This sets it apart from many anthologies, the product of editorial teams and aimed for use as textbooks in university courses. No doubt Palgrave discussed his selections with his close friend Tennyson (dedicatee of the first edition) and others, but these are his choices. The result, if you’re at all in tune with his sympathies, is a handy compendium. For the most part, Palgrave limits himself to lyrical poems, although he admits that a few of his choices could also be grouped among narrative or dramatic poetry. Another benefit of reading a well-selected anthology is the discovery of writers I hadn’t heard of before. I’ve noted several for further study.

William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling – Richard Barnefield – Thomas Campion – Samuel Daniel – Thomas Dekker – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex – John Donne – Michael Drayton – William Drummond – W. Drummond of Hawthornden – Thomas Heywood – Thomas Lodge – John Lylye – Christopher Marlowe – Thomas Nashe – William Shakespeare – Sir Philip Sidney – Edmund Spenser – The Shepherd Tonie – Joshua Sylvester – John Webster – Sir Thomas Wyatt Book II (Palgrave) [ edit ]The theme of National Poetry Day...is fresh voices, but there's an opportunity to celebrate some old ones, too. Palgrave, Macmillan's newly renamed academic list, is reissuing a facsimile edition of the book from which the list takes its name, Palgrave's Golden Treasury. First published in 1861 at the suggestion of Tennyson, then Poet Laureate, the anthology had sold 650,000 copies by 1939. The reissue has a foreword by the present Laureate, Andrew Motion.' - The Literator, The Independent The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics is a popular anthology of English poetry, originally selected for publication by Francis Turner Palgrave in 1861. [1] It was considerably revised, with input from Tennyson, about three decades later. Palgrave excluded all poems by poets then still alive.

Among the moderns: Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, and Auden have long been personal favorites, but until now I hadn’t paid any attention to the poems of Thomas Hardy, in spite of the fact that he’s one of my favorite novelists (and the urging of one of my best friends, whose taste I trust). The selection included here is seriously good — right up there with Robert Graves.

So what did I learn from reading the entire collection in sequence? What follows is strictly personal opinion. I already knew Shakespeare was great. No surprise there, but that Marlowe fellow wasn’t so bad either. My close attention to Milton was rewarded, especially in “Il Penseroso,” a seriously great poem. Among the Romantics, I found I don’t care if I ever read another poem by Walter Scott. I liked Shelley more than Keats and much more than Byron; until now, I had always thought of them as a single, three-headed poetic hydra. Wordsworth is generously represented, too much so for the sake of his reputation — there’s a lot of chaff there. Ditto for Tennyson. I get it — he’s a master of the depiction of nature, but to what purpose? Browning is a different matter. There’s something strange about his poems; I’m curious to continue exploring. I've paid rather fitful attention to poetry over the years, and mostly read newer stuff. This book was my introduction to Wordsworth and Shelley. Shelley's "The Flight of Love" is extraordinary, using an eagle's nest as a metaphor for love, which the stronger eagle abandons first, leaving the weaker alone in the tattered, storm tossed nest. The rhyme and meter of Wordsworth's "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" bring music to the comforting words of maturity and experience. Shelley's work is full of vivid imagery and he died young, Wordsworth had a long career and his voice is plainspoken and frank.

Our longtime neighbor and friend Ursula was probably the greatest lover of books I ever met. Gracious and friendly, frank and unpretentious, she read constantly and widely right up until she passed away at 97. In her retirement she worked part time for close to 20 years at the University of Michigan Conservation and Book Repair Lab.

DEDICATION

The authors are all British, although Press stretches the criterium both ways; he includes both T. S. Eliot, an American who took on British citizenship, and W. H. Auden, an Englishman with an American passport. Read it so many time only to discover more and more beauty and meanings.It is indeed a wonderful collection of poems! Thank you Hirdesh for recommending this book to me. I love it.