Text extracted from opening pages of book: COPYRIGHT. First Edition printed 1861 ( dated 1862). Reprinted with Corrections, and In ex added) Ft, lrutry, 1862. Reprinted with corrections 1863. ReJintcd t tC66, 1871 1874, 1877, 1879, March and August, 1882, 1884, 1891, 1892, 1895, iSi-o, 1901, 1903, 1905, 1906, 1902, 1910, 1913, mi?. Shilling Edition 1910, 1912 ( twice), 1914 Eirhteenpenny Edition TQ-T. m\ q. PREFACE THIS volume will, I hope, be found to con tain nearly all the genuine poetry in our lan guage fitted to please children, of and from the age at which they have usually learned to read, in common with grown people. A collection on this plan has, I believe, never before been made, although the value of the principle seems clear. The test applied, in every instance, in the work of selection, has been that of having actually pleased intelligent children; and my object has been to make a book which shall be to them no more nor less than a book of equally good poetry is to intelligent grown persons. The charm of such a book to the latter class of readers is rather increased than lessened by the surmised existence in it of an unknown amount of power, meaning and beauty, DeyoncI that which is at once to be seen; and children will not like this volume the less because, though containing little or nothing which will not at once please and amuse them, it also contains much, thf fall V Preface. excellence of which they may not as yet be able to understand. The application - of the practical test above mentioned ha# excluded nearly all verse written expressly for children, and most of the poetry written about children for grown people. Hence, the absence of several well-known pieces, which some persons who examine this volume ma> be surprised at not finding in it, I have taken the liberty of omitting portions of a few poems, which would else have been too long or otherwise unsuitable for the collection; and, in a very few instances, I have ventured to substitute a word or a phrase, when that of the author has made the piece in which it occurs unfit for children’s reading. The abbreviations I have been compelled to make in the Ancient Mariner, in order to bring that poem within the limits of this collection, are so considerable as to require particular mention and apology. No translations have been inserted but such as, by their originality of style and modifica tion of detail, are entitled to stand as original poems. COVENTRY RUT-MOKE. INDEX OF FIRST LINES PAUt A barking sound tiie shepherd hears 248 A chieftain to the Highlands bound 240 A. country life is sweet … … 81 A. fox, in life’s extreme decay . . 171 A. fragment of a rainbow bright . 41 A. lion cub, of sordid mind . . 801 A, Nightingale that all day long 276 A. parrot, from the Spanish main . .124 A. perilous life, and sad as life may be . . 76 A. widow bird sate mourning for her love 8& 9 A. wonder stranger ne'er was known 165 A. bou Ben Adhem ( may his tribe increase) 19 Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight . . 20 Among the dwellings framed by birds . 82 A. n ancient story I’ll tell you anon . . 169 An old song made by an aged old pate, . 136 An outlandish knight came from the North lands 221 Art thou the bird whom man lovee best 9fc As I a fare had lately past . 9 As it fell upon a day . 169 As in the sunshine of the morn . 271 At dead of night, when mortals lose 295 Attend all ye who list to hearour noble England’s praise 70 Before the stout harvesters falleth the grain 116 Besidefthe* Moldau’ rushing stream . 96 Clear had the day been from the dawn . # 6 Close by the threshold of a door nail’d fast 306 Come dear children, let us away … 50 Come listen to me, yon gallants so free . \ . 44 Come live with me and be my Love … . > . . 7 Oome unto these yellow sanda . \ . 07 vjn Index Did you hear of the curate who mounted his mare . 304 Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dovy; t Faintly as tolls the evening chime’ 81 Fair daftbdils, we