文档介绍：From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick
From The Lyrical
Poems Of Robert Herrick
Arranged with introduction by Francis Turner
Palgrave
1
From The Lyrical Poems Of Robert Herrick
PREFACE
ROBERT HERRICK - Born 1591 : Died 1674
Those who most admire the Poet from whose many pieces a selection
only is here offered, will, it is probable, feel most strongly (with the Editor)
that excuse is needed for an attempt of an obviously presumptuous nature.
The choice made by any selector invites challenge: the admission,
perhaps, of some poems, the absence of more, will be censured:--Whilst
others may wholly condemn the process, in virtue of an argument not
unfrequently advanced of late, that a writer's judgment on his own work is
to be considered final. And his book to be taken as he left it, or left
altogether; a literal reproduction of the original text being occasionally
included in this requirement.
If poetry posed solely for her faithful band of true lovers and
true students, such a facsimile as that last indicated would have claims
irresistible; but if the first and last object of this, as of the other Fine Arts,
may be defined in language borrowed from a different range of thought, as
'the greatest pleasure of the greatest number,' it is certain that less stringent
forms of reproduction are required and justified. The great majority of
readers cannot bring either leisure or taste, or information sufficient to
take them through a large mass (at any rate) of ancient verse, not even if it
be Spenser's or Milton's. Manners and modes of speech, again, have
changed; and much that was admissible centuries since, or at least sought
admission, has now, by a law against which protest is idle, lapsed into the
indecorous. Even ustomed forms of spelling are an effort to the
eye;--a kind of friction, which diminishes the ease and enjoyment of the
reader.
These hindrances and clogs, of very diverse nature, cannot be
disregarded by Poetry. mon w