Page:Seven Great American Poets - Hart - 1901.djvu/10

iv reminiscent, personal or subjective, form an important part of the narrative, and serve to awaken a personal interest, while at the same time they furnish examples of his writings which may be used apart from the context, in the study of literature. As there are no compilations simple enough to be so used, this book has been prepared with the hope that it will meet the requirements of those teachers who are endeavoring to carry forward this work.

As poetry is the highest form of literary expression, and as children are attracted by the music of rhyme and rhythm, these sketches have been devoted to the lives of poets. "The works of other men live, but their personality dies out of their labors; the poet who reproduces himself in his creation, as no other artist does or can, goes down to posterity with all of his personality blended with whatever is imperishable in his song. . . . A single lyric is enough, if one can only find in his soul and finish in his intellect one of those jewels fit to sparkle on the stretched forefinger of all time."

Sincere thanks are due to Mr. Charles Eliot Norton, Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman, Mr. Parke Godwin, Professor George Edward Woodberry, and Messrs. Harper & Brothers, Stone & Kimball, and D. Appleton & Co., for the use of copyrighted material controlled by them. By special arrangement, permission has been obtained from Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for the use of their copyrighted material.

BEATRICE H. SLAIGHT.