HEROES OF LITERATURE. ENGLISH POETS. A BOOK FOR YOUNG READERS - I883 - PREFACE - IN asking the reader to travel with me for a season in the realms of gold, or rather in that English realm, which is the richest, the widest, and the most fertile, I do not undertake fully to explore the country. So vast a journey is far beyond my power as a traveller. How, indeed, tvould it be possible to explore a territory so spacious, and to point out every lovely object in this enchanting region The amplest leisure and the largest knowledge will scarcely suffice for such a task. My purpose is a more modest one-namely, to point out some of the impressive features of a road rich in all that is fitted to gladden the eye and soothe the heart. In other words, and dropping Keatss metaphor, the . attempt is made in these pages to give brief biographies of illustrious English poets and such a sketch of their works as may attract young readers to a study the delight in which must grow in proportion to the knowledge. Let it be understood, then, that this book is intended to excite interest, but not to satisfy it-to show the reader where to look rather than to state comprehensively what he is likely to find. It may be added that no attempt is made to estimate the position of living poets, and that it has been found necessary to omit many names which would hold no mean place in a systematic history of English verse. CONTENTS. - CHAPTER I, CHAPTER 11. THE ELIZABETHAN POETS. Eclmuncl Spenser ... ... ... ... PAGE ... I Sir Philip Sidney-Samuel Daniel-hlichael Drayton-Christopher hIarlowe--George Chaplnan ... ... 39 CHAPTER IV. THE ELIZABETHAN POETS Co zfi tz ed. William Shakespeare ... ... ... ... CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. TIIE ELIZABETIIAN ASD JACOBEAN POETS C ltt lttltd. PAGE Een Jpnson-TVillinm Drummond-George Sandys-George TVither - George Herbert - Henry Vaughan - Villiam Erowne-Robert Herrick ... ... ... 74 CHAPTER VI. POETS OF TIIE COJfhfON VEALTH. Abral am Cowley-John Rfilton-Andrew Marvel1 ... ,.. 107 CHAPTER VII. THE POET OF THE RESTORATION. John Dryden ... ... ... .... ... ... 153 CHAPTER VIII. TIIE QUEES ANNE AND GEORGIAN POETS. Alexander Pope-Samuel Johnson-Oliver Goldsmith ... 181 CIIAPTER IX. TIIE QUEEN XSSE AND GEORGIAN POETS Co zti tued. S.. S.. Ja nesT homson ... ... ... 210 CHAPTER X. THE GEORGIAN POETS. Thoinas Gray and TVilliam Collins ... ... ... 225 CHAPTER XI. THE GEORGIAN POETS C lltilllltd. William Cowper ... ... ... ... ... 240 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. THE GEORGIAN POETS Continz ed. Robert Burns ... ... ... ... . PAGE S , 257 CHAPTER XIII. POETS OF THE NINETEESTH CEKTURY. T7illiam Wordsworth ... ... ... .. ... 278 CHAPTER XIV. POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Contitzzted. Sir Walter Scott . ... ... ... ... ... 300 CHAPTER XV. POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Co ztittz ed. Salnuel Taylor Coleridge-Robert Southey-JValter Savage Landor ... ... ... ... ... ... 322 CHAPTER XVI. POETS OF THE KINETEENTH CEKTURY Co tfi zz ed. Lord Byron ... ... ... ... ... . . CHAPTER XVII. POETS OF THE XINETEEKTH CENTURY Co zti zz cd. John ICeats-Percy Bysshe Shelley ... ... ... ... 365 CHAPTER XVIII. POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY C012ti12 1ed. Elizabeth Barrett Browning-John Keble ... ... ... gSS HEROES OF LITERATURE. CHAPTER I . INTRODUCTORY... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.