AN INTRODUCTION TO GOOD POETRY BY E. F. DAVIDSON, M.A. "More and more we must turn to console us, to sustain us." -M. Arnold. LONDON BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C. GLASGOW DUBLIN BOMBAY PREFACE This small collection aims at including only poems of the highest quality, which are really worthy to be carefully studied and learned by heart. It is intended primarily for use in the upper classes of our elementary schools, and therefore I have endeavoured to choose only poems which are simple in language and thought, and have excluded subjects manifestly unsuitable for children. At the same time it is hoped that this collection may be of use to teachers and others in forming a standard of taste, by which to judge poetry in general; since to study carefully and learn to appreciate the beauty of a few poems of the highest quality is the best means of acquiring that "instantaneous preference of the noble to the ignoble" which Ruskin defines taste to be. The introduction discusses, as simply as possible, some of the reasons for including the study of poetry in the school course, and some of the conditions which must be fulfilled if it is to be of any real value. The notes, the detailed nature of which distinguishes this from similar collections, are intended not only to point out the beauties and lessons of the particular poems here treated, but also to suggest 155131 |