_Old Ironsides._--"Old Ironsides" was the popular name for the frigate _Constitution_. Dr. Holmes's poem appeared in the Boston _Advertiser_ "at the time when it was proposed to break up the old ship as unfit for service." _Bedouin Song._--One of the most spirited, most genuinely lyrical of American poems. _Skipper Ireson's Ride._--These lines have an easy, swinging quality that is quite inimitable. One inclines to agree with Mr. Stedman: "Of all our poets he (Whittier) is the most natural balladist." _The Village Blacksmith._--The directness and homely strength of "The Village Blacksmith" have made it deservedly popular. One questions whether the last stanza might not have been omitted with advantage both to the unity and force of the poem. _The Last Leaf._--This masterpiece of mingled humor and pathos was a favorite poem of Abraham Lincoln. _The Old Kentucky Home._--The sincere and tender sentiment of this song, no less than its popular melody, has made it for many years a favorite. Even better known is Foster's "Old Folks at Home," which is said to have had a larger sale than any other American song. _Carolina._--The concluding lines of this lyric have an imaginative vigor rare in American poetry. Four stanzas are omitted. _Dirge for a Soldier._--Boker's Dirge was written in memory of General Philip Kearney. _Battle-hymn of the Republic._--Written in December, 1861, while Mrs. Howe was on a visit to Washington. Soon after the writer's return to Boston the lines were accepted for publication in the _Atlantic Monthly_ by James T. Fields, who suggested the title of the poem. The song did not at first receive much notice, but before the Civil War was over had become very popular. _My Maryland._--A poem of great strength and beauty, though of uneven merit. It is unfortunately marred by a few rather intemperate expressions. The sincerity of feeling is everywhere so evident, however, that these must be forgiven. The lines were written by a native of Baltimore, Prof. James Randall, and were first published in April, 1861. The author of the famous song was teaching in a Louisiana college when he read in a New Orleans paper the news of the attack on the Massachusetts troops as they passed through Baltimore. This newspaper account inspired the verses. _In the Hospital._--This poem, which has enjoyed at best a newspaper immortality, deserves to be more widely known. Its simplicity, directness, and truth of feeling are quite beyond praise. According to a story which one dislikes to believe apocryphal, these lines were found under the pillow of a wounded soldier near Port Royal, South Carolina, in 1864. _Days._--Regarded from the point of view of artistic form, perhaps nothing of Emerson's is quite so flawless as "Days," a poem which for conciseness and polish is worthy to be called classic.