The Project Gutenberg EBook of Selections from Five English Poets, by Various

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Title: Selections from Five English Poets

Author: Various

Release Date: September 27, 2004 [EBook #13535]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTIONS FROM FIVE ENGLISH POETS ***

Produced by Al Haines

SELECTIONS FROM

FIVE ENGLISH POETS

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

MARY E. LITCHFIELD

1902

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. DRYDEN
A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY

II. GRAY
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD

III. GOLDSMITH
THE TRAVELLER
THE DESERTED VILLAGE

IV. BURNS
THE COTTER'S SATURDAY NIGHT

V. COLERIDGE
THE ANCIENT MARINER

INTRODUCTION

When a poem is read aloud it is easy to realize that poetry is closely
related to music. Like music it awakens vague, mysterious feelings
which cannot be expressed in ordinary speech; and the person who fails
to catch the subtle melody of a poem gets but little from it even
though he understands perfectly the meaning of the words. To illustrate
this, put into commonplace prose a passage of beautiful verse,--for
instance, lines 358-372 of _The Ancient Mariner_, beginning, "Sometimes
a-dropping from the sky,"--and then compare the prose version with the
original. The two will be found as unlike as the flower after it has
been dissected by the botanist, and the same flower still on the stalk,
opening its petals to the morning sun.

The Greeks divided all poetry into three kinds,--lyric, epic, and
dramatic poetry, and there is no better general division. The lyric,
which is properly a song, expresses the transient feeling or mood of
the writer, and therefore is never very long. One must be sensitive to
the music of verse to care for a poem of this kind, because it tells no
story. Dryden's _Song for St. Cecilia's Day_ and Gray's _Elegy_, both
included in the present volume, are lyrics. Among the most beautiful
of English lyrics are Milton's _Lycidas_, Wordsworth's _Ode on
Intimations of Immortality_, and Shelley's _To a Skylark_ and
_Adonais_; while of American poems