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assist "buried merit," to assert or reassert itself has There is no debt more debts, the expression of

not been the least of my aims. sacred than that saddest of all gratitude to those who are beyond the reach of it. To many, nay, to most perhaps of the poets who have a place in this volume, fame never came at all, or any adequate recognition, from any quarter, of their genius and work; some lived and died in obscurity, and are now, except to a small circle, little more than names. But if the world is indifferent the world is just, and it is pleasing to think that by contributing to bring these neglected. or forgotten poets into notice I shall be contributing, if only imperfectly, to the reparation of the wrong which has inadvertently been done them. And this it is which induced me, somewhat inconsistently I fear, to include two poems by the Australian poet, poor Henry Kendall, to whose fine genius England has never done justice.

In the notes the source of each poem or extract has been indicated; notices have been given, where necessary, of the authors. When anything seemed to require explanation in the matter of the text, or in the text itself, it has been supplied. But I have carefully refrained from indulging in the sort of commentary which every reader can supply for himself, and which is commonly called æsthetic appreciation.

Where I have been indebted to other Collections due acknowledgment has been made in the notes, but I should like here to express my thanks for the use which Mr. Miles' Poets of the Century has been to me, not because I have drawn on the selections there given, but because that work directed my attention to two or three poets who were before unknown to me.

It remains for me to express my thanks to Mrs.

Calverley, Mrs. Locker-Lampson, the Earl of Crewe, Mr. Webster, Mr. John Murray, Messrs. Macmillan, Messrs. Ward and Lock, Messrs. Bell and Sons, Mr. George Allen of Ruskin House, and Messrs. Kegan Paul and Co., for permission to include poems which are still protected by copyright.

51 NORFOLK Square, W.

BOOK I

CUCKOO-SONG

SUMER is icumen in,

Lhude1 sing cuccu!

Groweth sed, and bloweth med,

And springth the wude nu,

Awe bleteth after lomb

Sing cuccu!

Lhouth after calvë cu;

Bulluc sterteth,2 bucke verteth,3

Murie sing cucu!

Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu,

Ne swike thu naver nu;

Sing, cuccu, nu, sing, cuccu

Sing cuccu, sing, cuccu, nu!

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