ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by W. C. BRYANT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by W. C. BRYANT, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by W. C. BRYANT, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TO THE READER. [PREFIXED TO THE EDITION OF 1848.] PERHAPS it would have been well if the auther had followed his original intention, which was to leave out of this edition, as unworthy of repubnication, several of the poems which made a part of his previous collections. He asks leave to plead the judgment of a literary friend, whose opinion in such matters he highly values, as his apology for having retained them. With the exception of the first and longest poem in the collection, "The Ages," they are all arranged according to the order of time in which they were written, as far as it can be ascertained. New York, 1846. 170368 |