PRESS LONDON AMEN HOUSE, E.C. 4 HUMPHREY MILFORD UNIVERSITY The first volume of these Selections of English Verse was published in 1928. Printed in Great Britain THE origin of the present Selections may be simply stated. Representations were made to the publishers that a Selection of English Verse in five volumes should be issued as a companion work to the Selections of English Prose, also in five volumes, issued in 1921-2. I was invited to undertake the task of editing the book, and the present volumes are the result. In preparing the work, I have endeavoured to adhere to the object I had in view in editing the companion volumes of English Prose. That object, so far as it applies to the present book, is to provide, for occasional reading, Selections, complete and interesting in themselves, from the works of our great poets, and, incidentally, to illustrate the history of English Poetry, so far indeed as that is possible, within the limits assigned. As with the Prose Selections, the present book is intended for readers of all classes and of all ages, for ordinary readers as well as students; and for young as well as old. With the view of making some appeal to the needs and preferences of the young, certain pieces have been included which otherwise might not have found a place here. The purpose of these volumes being to provide a corpus of all great English Poetry, I have endeavoured to choose the best and only the best, undeterred by the fact that many of the pieces presented have been served up again and again in existing anthologies. In this connexion I may be |