Book 2 — COMPILERS' PREFACE.
Reading edition
The inestimable value of literature in supplying healthful recreation, in opening the mind to larger views of life, and in creating ideals that shall mold the spiritual nature, is conceded now by every one who has intelligently considered the problems of education. But the basis upon which literature shall be selected and arranged is still a matter of discussion.
Chronology, race-correspondence, correlation, and ethical training should all be recognized incidentally; but the main purpose of the teacher of literature is to send children on into life with a genuine love for good reading. To accomplish this, three things should be true of the reading offered: first, it should be literature; second, it should be literature of some scope, not merely some small phase of literature, such as the fables or the poetry of one of the less eminent poets; and third, it should appeal to children's natural interests. Children's interests, varied as they seem, center in the marvelous and the preternatural; in the natural world; and in human life, especially child life and the romantic and heroic aspects of mature life. In the selections made for each grade, we have recognized these different interests.
To grade poetry perfectly for different ages is an impossibility; much of the greatest verse is for all ages—that is one reason why it is great. A child of five will lisp the numbers of Horatius with delight; and Scott's Lullaby of an Infant Chief, with its romantic color and its exquisite human tenderness, is dear to childhood, to manhood, and to old age. But the Land of Song is a great undiscovered country to the little child; by some road or other he must find his way into it; and these volumes simply attempt to point out a path through which he may be led into its happy fields.
Our earnest thanks are due to the following publishers for permission to use copyrighted poems: to Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for poems by Longfellow, Whittier, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, Aldrich, Bayard Taylor, James T. Fields, Phœbe Cary, Lucy Larcom, Celia Thaxter, and Sarah Orne Jewett; to D. Appleton & Co. for a large number of Bryant's poems; to Charles Scribner's Sons for two poems by Stevenson, from Underwoods, and A Child's Garden of Verse; to J. B. Lippincott & Co. for two poems by Thomas Buchanan Read; and to Henry T. Coates & Co. for a poem by Charles Fenno Hoffman.
The present volume is intended for the fourth, fifth, and sixth school years, or lower grammar grades. It is the second of three books prepared for use in the grades below the high school. As no collection of this size can supply as much poetry as may be used to advantage, and as many desirable poems by American writers have necessarily been omitted, we have noted at the end of this volume lists of poems which it would be well to add to the material given here, that our children may realize the scope and beauty of the poetry of their own land.
ONTENTS
PAGE
Alice Brand64
At Sea60
Banks o' Doon, The217
Battle of Blenheim, The141
Battle of the Baltic, The103
Beleaguered City, The133
Belshazzar221
Boy and the Angel, The118
Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning157
Burial of Sir John Moore22
By Cool Siloam's Shady Rill30
Calm on the Listening Ear of Night93
Ca' the Yowes81
Charge of the Light Brigade, The89
Children in the Wood, The71
Choral Song of Illyrian Peasants125
Companionship with Nature227
Concord Hymn161
Coral Grove, The63
Council of Horses, The114
Coronach200
Cricket, The193
Daffodils15
Daffodils, The13
Death of Nelson, The164
Destruction of Sennacherib18
Dewdrop, The207
Elixir, The117
England170
Epitaph on a Hare112
Evening (John Fletcher)150
Evening (John Keble)206
Evening Wind, The123
Exile of Erin215
Farewell, A152
Fidelity108
Fine Day, A35
Fisherman, The211
For A' That, and A' That69
Gladiator, The228
Good-Night207
Grasshopper, The192
Graves of a Household, The121
Green Cornfield, A41
Hallowed Ground145
Heritage, The208
Hohenlinden21
Holy, Holy, Holy19
Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead27
Honey-Bee, The15
How Sleep the Brave104
"How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" 229
Hymn of the Nativity234
Hurricane, The175
Inchcape Rock, The43
Incident of the French Camp147
Ingratitude57
Jock of Hazeldean213
Jerusalem, the Golden204
Kingdom of God, The178
King John and the Abbot of Canterbury126
Lady Clare218
Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots28
Life's "Good-Morning"201
Llewellyn and His Dog105
Lord Ullin's Daughter211
Love of God, The31
March42
Monterey162
Moonrise, A Selection201
Morning149
My Heart Leaps up when I Behold37
New Year, The237
Night101
Noble Nature, The179
Northern Seas, The61
Ode to the North-east Wind167
Oh! Weep for Those17
O Mother Dear, Jerusalem205
On a Favorite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes197
On a Spaniel Called "Beau" Killing a Young Bird78
On the Grasshopper and Cricket (Leigh Hunt)111
On the Grasshopper and Cricket (John Keats)110
O Wad Some Power37
Pibroch of Donuil Dhu24
Pied Piper of Hamelin, The46
Pilgrim Fathers, The84
Pipes at Lucknow, The224
Planting of the Apple Tree32
Quiet, Lord, My Froward Heart149
Rebecca's Hymn20
Rest191
Revenge, The143
Rhymed Lesson, A82
Royal George, The91
Ruth116
Sailor's Wife, The135
Sandalphon231
Selection from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, A155
Selkirk Grace, The31
Shepherd's Home, The77
Sheridan's Ride172
Skylark, The39
Soldier and Sailor137
Soldier's Dream, The26
Solitary Reaper, The199
Song from the Lady of the Lake216
Song of Marion's Men99
Song of the Greeks170
Song of the Sea, A58
Song: "Orpheus with His Lute Made Trees"151
Sound the Loud Timbrel125
Spring38
Stars101
Storm, The190
Summer Shower, The36
Sweet Peas80
Thy Voice is Heard Through Rolling Drums148
To a Mouse153
To a Waterfowl202
To Daffodils14
To the Cuckoo40
To the Small Celandine131
Union and Liberty97
Upon The Mountain's Distant Head16
Virtue208
When All Thy Mercies, O My God177
When Wilt Thou Save the People?94
Winstanley180
Wives of Brixham, The86
Wren's Nest, A194
Ye Mariners of England163