+----------------------------------------------------+ | Note: | | | | _ around word indicated italics _Accolon of Gaul_ | +----------------------------------------------------+ THE POEMS OF [Illustration] MADISON CAWEIN VOLUME I LYRICS AND OLD WORLD IDYLLS [Illustration] "It shall go hard with him through thee, unconquerable blade" Page 270 _Accolon of Gaul_ THE POEMS OF MADISON CAWEIN _Volume I_ LYRICS AND OLD WORLD IDYLLS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDMUND GOSSE _Illustrated_ WITH PHOTOGRAVURES AFTER PAINTINGS BY ERIC PAPE INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1898 AND 1907, BY MADISON CAWEIN PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. TO WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS WHO WAS THE FIRST TO RECOGNIZE AND ENCOURAGE MY ENDEAVORS, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED WITH AFFECTION, ADMIRATION AND ESTEEM PREFACE This first collected edition of my poems contains all the verses I care to retain except the translations from the German, published in 1895 under the title of _The White Snake_, and some of the poems in _Nature-Notes and Impressions_, published in 1906. Several of the poems which I probably would have omitted I have retained at the solicitation of friends, who have based their argument for their retention upon the generally admitted fact that a poet seldom knows his best work. The new arrangement under new titles I found was necessary for the sake of convenience; and the poems in a manner grouped themselves in certain classes. In eliminating the old titles--some eighteen in number--I have disregarded entirely, except in the case of the first volume, the date of the appearance of each poem, placing every one, according to its subject matter, in its proper group under its corresponding title. Most of the poems, especially the earlier ones, have been revised; many of them almost entirely rewritten and, I think, improved. MADISON CAWEIN. _Louisville, Kentucky._ INTRODUCTION