The names of many popular poets are entirely omitted. In no case, however, was this probably due to oversight. I have gone over carefully a wide field of verse, not without finding much to admire, but never quite happening upon that final touch of successful achievement where art and inspiration join. I am especially sorry to leave unrepresented a writer--more imaginative, possibly, than any American poet except Poe--whose utter contempt for technique in the ordinary sense places him wholly outside my present purpose. I wish to acknowledge various favors kindly shown by Professor C.T. Winchester, Professor Barrett Wendell, and Mr. H.E. Scudder. Thanks are also due Mr. T.B. Aldrich for the privilege of including the six poems from his pen, which were kindly selected for the book by the poet himself. The following firms deserve thanks for permitting the use of copyrighted poems: _Houghton, Mifflin & Co.:_ Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Annie Adams Fields, Louise Imogen Guiney, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Dean Howells, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Thomas William Parsons, John James Piatt, Lizette Woodworth Reese, Hiram Rich, Edward Rowland Sill, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Bayard Taylor, Henry David Thoreau, Maurice Thompson, John Greenleaf Whittier, George Edward Woodberry. Selections from the works of the foregoing writers are included "by permission of and by special arrangement with Houghton, Mifflin & Co., publishers of the works of said authors." _D. Appleton & Co.:_ Fitz-Greene Halleck, William Cullen Bryant. _Lee & Shepard:_ Julia Ward Howe. _Porter & Coates:_ Charles Fenno Hoffman. _Roberts Brothers:_ Emily Dickinson, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louise Chandler Moulton. _Copeland & Day:_ John Banister Tabb, Richard Hovey. _W.A. Pond & Co.:_ Stephen Collins Foster. _Clark & Maynard:_ Nathaniel Parker Willis. _The Cassell Publishing Co.:_ John Boyle O'Reilly. _The Century Co.:_ Richard Watson Gilder, James Whitcomb Riley (Poems in the _Century Magazine_). _Estes & Lauriat:_ Lloyd Mifflin. _Lamson & Wolffe:_ Bliss Carman. _Charles Scribner's Sons:_ Henry Cuyler Bunner, Eugene Field, Sidney Lanier, Richard Henry Stoddard, Henry Van Dyke. CONTENTS. PAGE Absence of Little Wesley, The _J.W. Riley_ 280 After All _W. Winter_ 117 Aladdin _J.R. Lowell_ 128 Annabel Lee _E.A. Poe_ 10 Apart _J.J. Piatt_ 149 At Gibraltar _G.E. Woodberry_ 273 At Last _R.H. Stoddard_ 153