By Oliphant Smeaton, M.A., F.S.A. 17. POE AND HIS POETRY 22. SCHILLER AND HIS POETRY 23. ROSSETTI AND HIS POETRY 24. COWPER AND HIS POETRY 25. MARLOWE AND HIS POETRY 26. CHAUCER AND HIS POETRY By Ernest Rhys By W. H. Hudson By W. H. Hudson By Mrs. F. S. Boas By James A. Roy By John H. Ingram By E. W. Edmunds, M.A. 27. WALT WHITMAN AND HIS POETRY By H. B. Binns 28. CHATTERTON AND HIS POETRY 29. WHITTIER AND HIS POETRY By John H. Ingram By W. H. Hudson 30. VICTOR HUGO AND HIS POETRY By W. H. Hudson 31. WILLIAM BLAKE AND HIS POETRY By Allardyce Nicoll, M.A. Other Volumes in active preparation HIS POETRY BY WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON " Author of "France: The Nation and its Develop- 1862 First published May 1911 by GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY 2 & 3 Portsmouth Street, Kingsway, London, W.C.2 Reprinted: February 1912 May 1915 TO VTIGROVINU ATOZIMMIN YRABELI Printed in Great Britain at THE BALLANTYNE PRESS by SPOTTISWOODE, BALLANTYNE & Co. LTD. Colchester, London & Eton FEB 625 Czeout 6% *38 DH86 GENERAL PREFACE A GLANCE through the pages of this little book will suffice to disclose the general plan of the series of which it forms a part. Only a few words of explanation, therefore, will be necessary. The point of departure is the undeniable fact that with the vast majority of young students of literature a living interest in the work of any poet can best be aroused, and an intelligent appreciation of it secured, when it is immediately associated with the character and career of the poet himself. The cases are indeed few and far between in which much fresh light will not be thrown upon a poem by some knowledge of the personality of the writer, while it will often be found that the most direct-perhaps even the only way to the heart of its meaning lies through a consideration of the circumstances in which it had its birth. The purely æsthetic critic may possibly object that a poem should be regarded simply as a self-contained and detached piece of art, having no personal affiliations or bearings. Of the validity of this as an abstract principle nothing need now be said. The fact remains that, in the earlier stages of study at any rate, poetry is most valued and loved when it is made to seem most human and vital; and the human and vital interest of poetry can be most surely brought home. to the reader by the biographical method of interpretation. |