BOOK OF POETRY CONTAINING A COLLECTION OF THE BEST SHORT AND EASY IN SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY LOOMIS J. CAMPBELL BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM AIMBOLIAD The Editor wishes to acknowledge, with thanks, his indebtedness to Messrs. Houghton, Osgood, & Co., D. Appleton & Co., Charles Scribner's Sons, and G. P. Putnam's Sons, for permission to print selected poems from copyright works published by them. EDUCATION: DEPT. COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY LOOMIS J. CAMPBELL. PREFACE. THE First Part of this book is composed of Simple Poems which will be likely to interest and amuse young children who are not yet very expert in the art of reading. It is hoped that the selections will also foster a high moral tone of feeling, and yield an influence for right behavior and conduct. The Select Poems in the Second and Third Parts are intended for children between the ages of eight or nine and thirteen or fourteen years. The plan of the book differs, in some respects, from that of any other collection which has come under the notice of the editor or compiler. The pieces are short and worthy of being committed to memory. They are also well fitted for reading aloud and for recitation. It is needless to say that short poems of great excellence, sufficient in number to fill many volumes of the size of the present one, might have been easily found. The difficulty has been to select so small a quantity from the vast poetical wealth which has been 542429 V accumulating for four hundred years. Unusual care, it is believed, has been taken to present only such poems as should be favorites in School and at Home. That a piece, when its merits were under consideration, should be true poetry, has been deemed of the first importance, and if, in any case, there has been a relaxing from a high poetic standard, it has been on account of some other excellence. Spirited rhetorical pieces fitted to instil into the minds of children right principles and sentiments, form a large proportion of the selections. The editor would consider his work as wholly lost, if much the greater part of what is contained herein should not readily win the ear, and touch the heart, of the children into whose hands the book may come. The design has been to please its youthful readers, as well as to benefit them: hence cheerful and lively pieces have been especially sought. Even those poems containing a devotional element or flavor are not of a morbid cast, such as declare this world a vale of tears, and depict this life as a misfortune which every good person rejoices to get rid of. Such poems have been chosen, rather, as speak of the world kindly, as a place where there are many beautiful things and many healthful pleasures to be seen and enjoyed. Thus we may teach faith and trust in the wise and good Father of all. |