Poems Of Actions

POEMSOF ACTIONSELECTED BYV. H. COLLINSCalcutta MadrasHUMPHREY MILFORDJL to poems relating a short and straightforward story.Reflective poems have been excluded, and so have beeneven narrative poems such as Macaulays Armadaunless description is markedly subordinate to action.The editors experience as a schoolmaster, supportedby the views of a large acquaintance among teachers, convinced him that poems of action 5 were more likelyto appeal to boys and girls in junior forms, and to developa general interest in poetry, than many of the piecesthough they satisfied the mere requirement of simplicitythat were often given in selections for schools. ThusWordsworths Daffodils, simple as it is in subject, inlanguage, and in versification, will often fail to move boysand girls of eleven or twelve years of age. At that age, too, natural sceneryeven seen, let alone describedrarely appeals to them. If they prefer fields to streets itis mainly because in the country they can run wild, climbtrees, and have tea in a hayfield. The theme of love, too, is endured only on condition that it is a peg on whichhang action and adventure. Reflection, characterization, and the minor key run the risk of leading them to regardpoetry as Sentimental nonsense, and, at a stage whenimpressions are deepest and most lasting, of creating aprejudice that perhaps during the rest of life will neverbe eradicated If, on the other hand, every poem broughtbefore young pupils appeals by the interest of its storyand action there is more chance when later the arePreface to JNew Jiainonuroznoted to an anthology like Palgraves Golden Treasurythat they will come to it with some expectation of enjoyment, The editor found that in spite of themultitude of verseanthologies for schools these principles had hardly beenrecognized or at all events had not been carried out asstrictly as seemed to him desirable. Hence this selectionand afterwards a still easier one. Stories in Verse.The success of Poems of Action has involved so manyreprints that the plates have become worn, and as it isnow necessary to reset the text the opportunity has beentaken to supplement the new edition with 32 pages ofadditional poems. For the convenience of schools thathave some stock left of the original collection these additions have been printed at the end of the volume.The editor is confident that both those who knew thebook in its old form and those who now make their firstacquaintance with it will share his appreciation of theillustrations by Mr. G. Walter Hodges, with which itsextended form and new dress are embellished.The versions of Macaulays Horatius9 and D. G.Rossettis White Ship are abridgements.Acknowledgements for leave to include copyrightpoems are due to the following: Rev. F. M. T. Palgravefor F. T. Palgraves Crecy and Trafalgar5 Mr. AlbanDobson for Austin Dobsons The Ballad of Beau Brocade Madame Duclaux for A. M. F. Robinsons CABallad of Orleans Sir Henry Newbolt for A Ballad ofJohn Nicholson5 Mr. Alfred Noyes and Messrs. WilliamBlackwood Sons for The Highwayman the lateRudyard Kipling and Messrs.