Page:Echoes from East and West.pdf/11

viii many years, which I have made as representative as possible within the narrow range of my quest. Naturally enough, I have given the greatest prominence to the earlier part as well as the Northern section of English literature, as it is highly interesting to see the beginnings of modern English literature, which is second to no other in the whole history of the world. Again, the selections from other European literatures have been made in proportion to the interest they may excite in us for their direct or indirect bearing on the poetry of this country. Lastly, I have given some prominence to Indic literatures, because of the present intimate connexion between England, which has absorbed the best part of Greek, Italic, Romance and Teutonic literatures, and India, which has preserved for us the earliest monuments of Aryan culture. I may add that I have ended the volume with "Stray Notes of Mine Own," as they show some of my predilections. Of these poems the one that I care for most is the Sonnet on Milton's "Paradise Lost."

As regards the arrangement of the selected pieces, a few words need be said. I have not thought it fit to present them in the order of the languages, which would give the book a formidable appearance and would not make the poems really effective. I have, therefore, given them in their chronological order of composition, which, I trust, would be found to be also their psychological and poetically effective order. This order, I need hardly say, was not the order in which I learnt the languages. A few verses, however, taken from my translation of Kalidasa's "Sakuntala and her Keepsake," have been interspersed through the volume. Again, as regards the method of rendering, I may say