For several reasons the author has thought best in his classification of certain authors to discriminate between poets and verse-writers. To apply the name of poet to each and every writer of verse would have been manifestly unjust. The poets of a generation are not numerous, but the verse-writers are very many. If the term “poet” be loosely applied it loses its signification, while to deny that name to many a writer of excellent verse is to do him no injustice, but rather a service, as it is no disparagement to a private soldier not to be addressed as colonel. To the many persons who have so cordially responded to his letters of inquiry, and whom he may not thank by name, the writer desires in this place to express his acknowledgments. To Mr. Arthur Mason Knapp, the superintendent of the Bates Hall department of the Boston Public Library, he has been indebted for very much in the way of help and suggestion from the time the work was begun, and to other officials of that department he is under obligations likewise. He also gratefully acknowledges much timely assistance received from the publishing firms of Lee & Shepard, T. Y. Crowell & Co., and Lamson, Wolffe & Co. In the reading of the proofs many valuable suggestions have been received from the proof-readers at the Riverside Press; but his especial thanks are due his friend, Mr. Francis H. Allen, of Boston, whose watchful, critical supervision has been exercised upon every page of proof from first to last. The debt of gratitude which the writer owes him for this service may not be lightly estimated. Without his help, the book would have fallen far short of whatever measure of excellence it may now be judged to attain. THE HERMITAGE, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 17, 1897. PUBLISHERS NAMED IN THIS VOLUME.