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POEMS

FOR STUDENTS

EDITED BY

S. S. SEWARD, Jr.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN STANFORD UNIVERSITY

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NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1909,

BY

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

QUINN & BODEN COMPANY PRESS

RAHWAY, N. J.

PREFACE

To stumble unexpectedly upon a poem, or a volume of poems, with the sudden thrill of discovery, to wander among the works of the poet "as one seeking the face of a friend in a crowd,"-this is the approach to poetry that all agree brings the happiest results. That poems may be profitably "studied," however, is not universally acknowledged. This is wholly natural; for treatment too vague is obviously likely to be unstimulating, and treatment too pedantic is sure to kill spontaneous interest. This volume is compiled with a full realization of these besetting dangers, yet in the conviction that poetry can be studied with profit. Furthermore, it attempts to give some concrete suggestions toward the realization of this ideal.

It should first be explained that the greatest encouragement for the compilation of these poems came from the recent action of the National Conference on College Entrance Examinations, introducing lyric and shorter narrative poems among the types of literature to be studied in the schools. I have based the contents of this volume, therefore, upon certain recommendations of the Conference, the fourth Book of the Golden Treasury, a selected list of Browning's poems, and several narrative poems. Naturally, the

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