pose.

A word more should be said about the title. I have not interpreted the
term lyric so rigidly as to exclude sonnets, ballads, elegiac verse, or
even pieces of almost pure description. If I had held to the strictest
sense of lyric, this book would never have been compiled; for I suspect
nothing will strike the reader more forcibly than the fact that, despite
the excellence of the poems included, there is a notable lack of
unconsciousness--of pure singing quality. Such things as Pinkney's
"Health" and Holmes's "Old Ironsides" are the exception. The poems are
composed cleverly, but they do not quite sing themselves to their own
music. The best American verse, while not insincere, is seldom wholly
spontaneous. This is not saying that much spontaneous verse has not been
written in this country; much has been, but the singer's voice has too
often been uncultivated, and the product inartistic.

The names of many popular poets are entirely omitted. In no case,
however, was this probably due to oversight. I have gone over carefully
a wide field of verse, not without finding much to admire, but never
quite happening upon that final touch of successful achievement where
art and inspiration join. I am especially sorry to leave unrepresented
a writer--more imaginative, possibly, than any American poet except
Poe--whose utter contempt for technique in the ordinary sense places him
wholly outside my present purpose.

I wish to acknowledge various favors kindly shown by Professor C.T.
Winchester, Professor Barrett Wendell, and Mr. H.E. Scudder. Thanks are
also due Mr. T.B. Aldrich for the privilege of including the six poems
from his pen, which were kindly selected for the book by the poet
himself. The following firms deserve thanks for permitting the use of
copyrighted poems:

_Houghton, Mifflin & Co.:_

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Annie Adams Fields, Louise Imogen Guiney, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, William Dean Howells, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James
Russell Lowell, Thomas William Parsons, John James Piatt, Lizette
Woodworth Reese, Hiram Rich, Edward Rowland Sill, Harriet
Prescott Spofford, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Bayard Taylor, Henry
David Thoreau, Maurice Thompson, John Greenleaf Whittier, George
Edward Woodberry.

Selections from the works of the foregoing writers are included "by
permission of and by special arrangement with Houghton,