From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick
Arranged with introduction by Francis Turner Palgrave
PREFACE
ROBERT HERRICK - Born 1591 : Died 1674
Those who most admire the Poet from whose many pieces a selection
only is here offered, will, it is probable, feel most strongly
(with the Editor) that excuse is needed for an attempt of an
obviously presumptuous nature. The choice made by any selector
invites challenge: the admission, perhaps, of some poems, the
absence of more, will be censured:--Whilst others may wholly
condemn the process, in virtue of an argument not unfrequently
advanced of late, that a writer''s judgment on his own work is to
be considered final. And his book to be taken as he left it, or
left altogether; a literal reproduction of the original text
being occasionally included in this requirement.
If poetry were composed solely for her faithful band of true
lovers and true students, such a facsimile as that last indicated
would have claims irresistible; but if the first and last object
of this, as of the other Fine Arts, may be defined in language
borrowed from a different range of thought, as ''the greatest
pleasure of the greatest number,'' it is certain that less
stringent forms of reproduction are required and justified. The
great majority of readers cannot bring either leisure or taste,
or information sufficient to take them through a large mass (at
any rate) of ancient verse, not even if it be Spenser''s or
Milton''s. Manners and modes of speech, again, have changed; and
much that was admissible centuries since, or at least sought
admission, has now, by a law against which protest is idle,
lapsed into the indecorous. Even unaccustomed forms of spelling
are an effort to the eye;--a kind of friction, which diminishes
the ease and ...
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