MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY • CALCUTTA · MADRAS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO PREFACE IN making this selection we have had two main objects before us the first, to provide poems which boys might reasonably be expected to like, and the second (which is not unconnected with the first) to awaken or encourage their metrical sense. The former of these objects needs no defence. The poems offered to boys frequently make their appeal to emotions which in the ordinary boy are still dormant, and though there is much to be said for using the time when memory is most active for acquiring a knowledge of poems which will only be appreciated later, the principle has been pushed to an extreme. There is, as we hope this volume will show, a great deal of poetry which is likely to win instantaneous acceptance from any reasonably intelligent boy. The second object is more controversial, for though the purpose may be applauded the method may easily be condemned. We wish to make it clear that we make no pretensions to an expert knowledge of metrical systems or of their terminology. From such dangerous ground we are anxious to keep aloof. Our classification of metres is confessedly of the roughest, and the large section M245752 |