IMAGINATION AND FANCY; OR, SELECTIONS FROM THE ENGLISH POETS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THOSE FIRST REQUISITES OF THEIR ART; WITH MARKINGS "WHAT IS POETRY?" BY LEIGH HUNT. A NEW EDITION. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE. 1891. PREFACE. THIS book is intended for all lovers of poetry and the sister arts, but more especially for those of the most poetical sort, and most especially for the youngest and the oldest for as the former may incline to it for information's sake, the latter will perhaps not refuse it their good-will for the sake of old favourites. The Editor has often wished for such a book himself; and as nobody will make it for him, he has made it for others. It was suggested by the approbation which the readers. of a periodical work bestowed on some extracts from the poets, commented, and marked with italics, on a principle of co-perusal, as though the Editor were reading the passages in their company. Those readers wished to have more such extracts; and here, if they are still in the mind, they now possess them. The remarks on one of the poems that formed a portion of the extracts (The Eve of Saint Agnes) are repeated in the present volume. All |