Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

One Star only for Love's Heaven,
One Rose only for Love's breast,
One Love only to be given.

Star that gathers all stars' glory,
Rose all sweetness of the rest,
Love that is all Life's glad story.

AUGUSTA WEBSTER.

PREFACE.

THE present work differs, it is believed, from previous

collections of the kind, in these particulars: (1) that it

consists entirely of short lyric poems, (2) that each

poem exhibits some phase of the "tender passion," and

(3) that it includes specimens of the genius of the latest,

as well as of the earliest, writers. These particulars are,

indeed, to be found separately in other compilations;

but never before, so far as I am aware, have they all

been included in one and the same volume.

Further, I have attempted-not quite unsuccessfully,

I hope to arrange the pieces in something more satis-
factory than merely chronological order. A glance at
the "Contents" will show that I have endeavoured to
describe the course of love from its beginning to its end;
placing, where possible, parallel poems side by side;
and, altogether, aiming at the completeness and variety
of a sonata, in which movement follows movement in
artistic sequence.

I need scarcely say I should have failed completely to
realize my conception of the book, had it not been for
the kind manner in which our living poets have granted
me permission to reprint their pieces; and I hasten to
acknowledge my obligations in this respect to Mrs.
Lewes ("George Eliot "), Messrs. Tennyson, Browning,

Arnold, Morris, Swinburne, Allingham, Rossetti, Mac-
Donald, and others; as well as to those publishers who
have allowed me to reproduce some poems of which
they possess the copyright.

It is my hope that this volume may be welcomed, not

only by the "maids" for whom it is primarily intended,

but by all those persons-and how numerous they are,

I need not say who are sensible to the "passion" of

which it treats.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »