GRAD. R.RZ .48 532 COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY FELIX E. SCHELLING ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published March 1913 PREFACE In the following account of the English Lyric, its origin in early times and its progress through the ages to our day, I have endeavored to write always from impressions, renewed, direct, and made at first hand. But it would be madness in these days of commentary not to know as much as possible of the wise and the unwise things that have been said by those who have traversed this fascinating path before me. Independence of judgment, even though it lead to singularity at times, is the most precious right of criticism; but a becoming respect for fellowworkers is alike courteous and judicious. It was my original intention to include, in this book on the English lyric, a chapter on the lyrical poets of our American Commonwealth and the colonies of the mother country, whether they spread over new continents or dot far distant seas. This seemed the more desirable as it is a canon of my faith that language alone is the criterion of literary unity, wherewith the accidents of political union or severance have little to do. On trial, however, it was soon clear that a treatment of our American authors which could satisfy alike the exacting claims of neighborhood and reasonable proportion was quite impossible; and the plan was abandoned. It is as yet contrary to the traditions of criticism to treat of American writers as a 255784 part and parcel of the literature of our common race. The acceptance of this rule of practice lightens materially the task of British critics; while it enables those American born to draw their portraits of our own authors on a scale, at times, of disproportioned importance. In a general history of poetry in the English tongue, however minute, Thomas Pringle is mentionable for one poem which Coleridge had the discernment to single out for praise. In an anthology of South African verse, Pringle dilates into a considerable figure, "the father of South African poetry." This case is extreme; and yet the parallel is not wholly misleading. "A single chapter in a book of any size in which to treat Bryant, Whittier, Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Poe, Whitman, Lanier, and Aldrich!" exclaims a fellow-countryman in dismay; while the London critic superciliously asks in cool print: “Has America produced a poet?" Who is to say? Who can draw with the object so out of focus? The bibliography, in a volume dealing with so many names, can make no attempt at completeness. All references to editions of single authors and, for the most part, criticism referable to individuals, has been rigorously omitted. References to current detailed bibliographies, such as those of The Cambridge History of English Literature, should suffice even for the student. On the other hand, an attempt has been made to include a large number of titles of lyrical anthologies with their attendant introductions and to supply the titles of the more important books dealing with the lyric as such. |