of the United States. If I seem to have omitted certain familiar poems, it has not been from oversight, but after a careful weighing of reasons. The arrangement of poems is, as nearly as I could make it, chronological: the order being determined by the birth-date of writers. If I have in any measure succeeded in my difficult task, it is largely due to the effective assistance I have received on both sides of the Atlantic. On this side, mention must first be made of the Rev. Richard Wilton, M.A., Rector of Londesborough and Canon of York-one of our bestknown sacred poets *—who has spared neither time nor thought in aiding me to make the collection as choice as possible to his fine taste I am under the deepest obligation, as well as for the Dedicatory Sonnet, ‘To the Sacred Poets of America,' which at my suggestion he wrote. For help of various kinds I am indebted to the late lamented James Ashcroft Noble, an accomplished literary critic; Norman Gale, author of A Country Muse; Gleeson White, editor of Ballades and Rondeaux, whose ample library of American poetry was freely put at my service; the Rev. Andrew Chalmers, M.A., editor of Modern Hymns; the Rev. H. C. Beeching, M.A., editor of Lyra Christi; Coulson Kernahan, author of A Dead Man's Diary; the Rev. G. T. Coster, author of Gloria Christi; Paul B. Neuman, Author of The Interpreter's House; the Rev. Valentine D. Davis, B.A., and Dr. Garnett, who afforded me every facility in consulting books at the British Museum. On the other side of the Atlantic my helpers have been both numerous and distinguished. Special acknowledgments are due to Mrs. Tileston, the editor of Quiet Hours, who has been almost an American colleague * Author of Wood-Notes and Church Bells, Lyrics Sylvan and Sacred, Sungleams, and Benedicite. editor, examining for me the works of American poets in the Boston libraries; Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton, to whom I am also indebted for three unpublished sonnets; Richard Watson Gilder, LL.D., editor of The Century; Edmund Clarence Stedman, LL.D., author of American Poets; Dr. Doane, Bishop of Albany, and Miss Edith Matilda Thomas, who in recent interviews gave me valuable counsel; and Dr. J. M. Whiton, who sought out for me books that could not be obtained in England, and rendered valuable aid in revision of the proofs. To all these I tender my sincere thanks. From every writer and publisher I have received the most ready response to my application for the use of copyright poems. The only restriction imposed was by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., in the case of a few poets, such as Longfellow, Whittier, and Lowell, that my extracts should not exceed a certain number; these writers, however, are within the reach of all, so that the restriction has really proved of service by affording me space for the verse of less-known writers, whose works are more difficult of access. My selections from the authors named below have been taken by permission of, and by special arrangement with, their publishers, to whom I render my most cordial thanks : : HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN, & Co.-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel Longfellow, Christopher P. Cranch, Alice and Phoebe Cary, Caroline Atherton Mason, James Russell Lowell, Thomas W. Parsons, Edna Dean Proctor, Lucy Larcom, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Margaret E. Sangster, Bayard Taylor, Celia Thaxter, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Francis Bret Harte, Edgar Fawcett, Edward Rowland Sill, Emma Lazarus, Edith Matilda Thomas, Henry Augustin Beers, Margaret Deland, Frank Dempster Sherman, James Thomas Fields, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Nora Perry, John James Piatt, Sarah M. B. Piatt, John Townsend Trowbridge, Adeline D. Train Whitney, George Edward Woodberry, Harriet Prescott Spofford, William Roscoe Thayer, William Henry Burleigh, John Burroughs, James Freeman Clarke, William Henry Furness, Lizette Woodworth Reese, Louise Imogen Guiney, Saxe Holm, William Dean Howells, Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, Ina Donna Coolbrith. ROBERTS BROTHERS. — Louisa May Alcott, Charles Timothy Brooks, Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (Susan Coolidge), Emily Dickinson, Frederic Henry Hedge, William Channing Gannett, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Frederick Lucian Hosmer, Julia Ward Howe, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louise Chandler Moulton, Theodore Parker, John White Chadwick. THE CENTURY COMPANY.-Richard Watson Gilder, Mary Mapes Dodge, Washington Gladden, Thomas Bailey Aldrich. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.-James Herbert Morse, Sarah Hammond Palfrey, Francis Howard Williams, Danske Dandridge, Charles Henry Crandall. CASSELL & Co. (New York).— Minnie Gilmore, Charles Munroe Dickinson. D. Appleton & Co.--William Cullen Bryant. HARPER BROTHERS.-Amélie Rives (the Princess Troubetzköy), Horatio Nelson Powers. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.-Anne Reeve Aldrich, Julia C. R. Dorr, Eugene Field, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Sidney Lanier, Richard Henry Stoddard, Charles Henry Lüders. ARMSTRONG & SONS. - Edgar Allan Poe. BOWEN MERRILL COMPANY.-James Whitcomb Riley. COPELAND & DAY.-John Banister Tabb, Hannah Parker Kimball, Alice Brown. T. Y. CROWELL & Co.-Sarah Knowles Bolton, Nathan Haskell Dole, Charlotte Fiske Bates. G. H. ELLIS.-Minot Judson Savage. LEE & SHEPARD.-David Atwood Wasson. A. D. F. RANDOLPH & Co.-Harriet McEwen Kimball, Willis Boyd Allen, May Riley Smith. THE LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY.-Paul Hamilton Hayne, Lydia Maria Child, Katharine Lee Bates, Oscar Fay Adams. F. A. STOKES & Co.-Frank Dempster Sherman. THOMAS WHITTAKER.-Augustus William Muhlenberg. E. P. DUTTON & Co.-Phillips Brooks, Edmund Hamilton Sears, William Croswell, George Washington Doane. MORRELL HIGGINSON & Co.-Joaquin Miller. THE OUTLOOK COMPANY.-Tudor Jenks. THE INDEPENDENT (New York).-Rose Terry Cooke. J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co.-Charles F. Richardson. GEORGE H. CARR.-W. Hunter Birckhead. A. S. BARNES & Co.-Ray Palmer. G. GOTTSBERGER PECK.-Rose Terry Cooke. To the following I am indebted for permission to use poems of which they hold the British copyright :— LONGMANS, GREEN & Co.-John James Piatt, Sarah M. B. Piatt, J. Whitcomb Riley, Margaret Deland, Thomas Wentworth Higginson. OSGOOD, MACILVAINE & Co.-Emily Dickinson, Eugene Field, Margaret Deland. To the following authors I am indebted for permission to use their poems: Louise Chandler Moulton, Amélie Rives (the Princess Troubetzköy), to both of whom I am indebted for unpublished poems, Anna Jane Granniss, Martha Perry Lowe, Maurice Francis Egan, Langdon Elwyn Mitchell (John Philip Varley), Tudor Jenks, Charles Gordon Ames, George McKnight, Arlo Bates, W. Ordway Partridge, Richard Hovey, John Vance Cheney; also to Bishop Doane for a hymn by his father, Charles Ray Palmer for poems by his father, Lydia A. Very for poems by her brother, and Charles T. Weitzel for poems by his wife. I have taken the greatest pains to reach holders of copyright of the poems included; but if in any case I have unwittingly failed, I trust that the permission I would gladly have sought will be as generously accorded as it has been, without exception, by all others. I now offer this collection-the result of careful research extending over several years-to lovers of sacred verse in all English-speaking lands. May it tend to strengthen the bond, already so strong, which unites the kindred nations of Great Britain and America! EALING, LONDON, W. W. G. H. |