Great Relatives Poetry Schoolbook

164 TO MORROW The one-hundred and sixty-fourth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Nothing except his surname appears recoverable with regard to the author of this truly noble poem: It should be noted as exhibiting a rare excellence,—the climax of simple sublimity. It is a lesson of high instructiveness to examine the essential qualities which give first-rate poetical rank to lyrics such as "To-morrow" or "Sally in our Alley," when compared with poems written (if the phrase may be allowed) in keys so different as the subtle sweetness of Shelley, the grandeur of Gray and Milton, or the delightful Pastoralism of the Elizabethan verse. Intelligent readers will gain hence a clear understanding of the vast imaginative, range of Poetry;—through what wide oscillations the mind and the taste of a nation may pass;—how many are the roads which Truth and Nature open to Excellence.

163 The Dying Man In His Garden The one-hundred and sixty-third poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: fancied green: cherished garden.

162 To The Same The one-hundred and sixty-second poem in the collection.

161 To Mary Unwin The one-hundred and sixty-first poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: The Editor knows no Sonnet more remarkable than this, which, with 162, records Cowper's gratitude to the Lady whose affectionate care for many years gave what sweetness he could enjoy to a life radically wretched. Petrarch's sonnets have a more ethereal grace and a more perfect finish; Shakespeare's more passion; Milton's stand supreme in stateliness, Wordsworth's in depth and delicacy. But Cowper's unites with an exquisiteness in the turn of thought which the ancients would have called Irony, an intensity of pathetic tenderness peculiar to his loving and ingenuous nature. There is much mannerism, much that is unimportant or of now exhausted interest in his poems: but where he is great, it is with that elementary greatness which rests on the most universal human feelings. Cowper is our highest master in simple pathos.

160 The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk The one-hundred and sixtieth poem in the collection.

159 Hymn to Adversity The one-hundred and fifty-ninth poem in the collection.

158 Ode On A Distant Prospect Of Eton College The one-hundred and fifty-eight poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Henry VI. founded Eton.

157 The Land O' The Leal The one-hundred and fifty-seventh poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: leal: faithful; fain: happy.

156 John Anderson The one-hundred and fifty-sixth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: jo: sweetheart; brent: smooth; pow: head.

155 Jean The one-hundred and fifty-fifth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: airts: quarters; row: roll; shaw: small wood in a hollow, spinney; knowes: knolls.

154 The Sailors Wife The one-hundred and fifty-fourth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Burns justly named this "one of the most beautiful songs in the Scots or any other language." One verse, interpolated by Beattie, is here omitted:—it contains two good lines, but is quite out of harmony with the original poem. Bigonet: little cap, probably altered from beguinette; thraw: twist; caller: fresh.

153 Duncan Gray The one-hundred and fifty-third poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: fou: merry with drink; coost: carried; unco skeigh: very proud; gart: forced; abeigh: aside; Ailsa craig: a rock in the Firth of Clyde; grat his een bleert: cried till his eyes were bleared; lowpin: leaping; linn: waterfall; sair: sore; smoor'd: smothered; crouse and canty: blythe and gay.

152 Auld Robin Gray The one-hundred and fifty-second book in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: greet: cry; daurna: dare not.—There can hardly exist a poem more truly tragic in the highest sense than this: nor, except Sappho, has any Poetess known to the Editor equalled it in excellence.

151 Highland Mary The one-hundred and fifty-first poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: drumlie: muddy; birk: birch.

150 O my Luve's like a red red rose The one-hundred and fiftieth poem in the collection.

149 Bonnie Lesley The one-hundred and forty-ninth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: scaith: hurt; tent: guard; steer: molest.

148 Mary Morison The one-hundred and forty-eighth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: stoure: dust-storm; braw: smart.

147 Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard The one-hundred and forty-seventh poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Perhaps the noblest stanzas in our language.

146 To Evening - W. Collins The one-hundred and forty-sixth poem in the collection.

145 A Wish The one-hundred and forty-fifth poem in the collection.

144 To A Mouse The one-hundred and forty-fourth poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: sleekit: sleek; bickering brattle: flittering flight; laith: loth; pattle: ploughstaff; whyles: at times; a daimen icker: a corn-ear now and then; thrave: shock; lave: rest; foggage: aftergrass; snell: biting; but hald: without dwelling-place; thole: bear; cranreuch: hoarfrost; thy lane: alone; a-gley: off the right line, awry.

143 The Poplar Field The one-hundred and forty-third poem in the collection.

142 Ode on the Spring The one-hundred and forty-second poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: Attic warbler: the nightingale.

141 The Passions (Ode for Music) The one-hundred and forty-first poem in the collection. (* additional details below) NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: chaste-eyed Queen: Diana.

140 The Progress of Poesy (A Pindaric Ode) The one-hundred and fortieth poem in the collection. *(additional notes below - after my un-schooled interpretation).' Correction: I say 'ear' when I should say 'car'. "Dryden's less presumptuous car" *NOTES FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK: "Aeolian lyre: the Greeks ascribed the origin of their Lyrical Poetry to the colonies of Aeolis in Asia Minor. Thracia's hills supposed a favourite resort of Mars. Feather'd king the Eagle of Jupiter, admirably described by Pindar in a passage here imitated by Gray. Idalia: in Cyprus, where Cytherea (Venus) was especially worshipped. Hyperion: the Sun. St. 6-8 allude to the Poets of the Islands and Mainland of Greece, to those of Rome and of England. Theban Eagle: Pindar." ps: Helicon's harmonious springs = the fountain of all song; Mt. Positive associated with the muses; vernal = springtime; He, that rode sublime = Milton in Paradise Lost.