THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 159301

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1899.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, Ly

HARPER & BROTHERS,

the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York

TO THE READER.

THIS collection, although embracing specimens from the writings of a very great number of American poets, may not yet contain the nam of all who deserve admission. Of some authors, however, the best things, in a literary point of view, are of a nature which did not fall within the plan of the compiler. Amatory poems and drinking songs, notwithstanding the skill or the spirit with which they might be written, have been inva. riably excluded, as not proper for a book designed to be placed in a school or family library, and, therefore, to be read by very young persons. If it had been the sole object of the compiler to present samples of the poetical literature of his country, he would have adopted a less rigid rule in this respect. There are also scattered in our magazines and other periodicals many poems of much merit, some accompanied by the names of their authors, and others, the authorship of which might with due pains be ascertained, which would add to the value and interest of a compilation like this. The necessity of preparing the work for the press

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