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PREFACE.

THE Editor of the volume now offered to the public has found his task one of some delicacy and difficulty.

In selecting from among the recent poets of Great Britain two, whose works had not been hitherto presented collectively to the American reader, to be published with a new edition of Keats, it was, of course, his object to give the preference to those which would be most acceptable to the public-most popular. He chose Mary Howitt and Henry Hart Milman; and in doing so, obeyed the dictates of his own judgment as to their merits, compared with those of their contemporaries; and he believes that, considered with reference to richness of imagination, fertility of invention, grace and elegance of diction, and the interesting character of the subjects which they have chosen for their various poetical works, they will bear comparison with any of the living British poets. Milman is in the classical style. His chaste and beautiful compositions remind one of a Grecian temple, towering towards Heaven in the severe majesty of its just proportions; while those of Mrs. Howitt, redolent of middle age lore, and rich in catholic associations, have rather the semblance of some venerable Gothic cathedral,

"With storied windows richly dight,
Shedding a dim religious light"

upon the kneeling devotees below. Each has a peculiar beauty, such as may render them counterparts to each other, and not inappropriately, it is believed, are they grouped opposite to each other in this volume.

The many editions already published of Keats's works have sufficiently attested his popularity. His reputation has been continually advancing since the period of his lamented death.

No pains have been spared to render the respective collections. embraced in this volume complete and accurate; and it is hoped they may prove acceptable to the public.

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THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

MARY HOWITT.

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MEMOIR OF MARY HOWITT.

and are now living at Esher, in Surrey.

MARY HOWITT was born at Coleford, in Glouces- | continued to reside till about twelve months ago, tershire, where her parents were making a temporary residence; but shortly after her birth they Mary Howitt published jointly with her husreturned to their accustomed abode at Uttoxeter, band two volumes of miscellaneous poems, in in Staffordshire, where she spent her youth. The 1823; and, in 1834, she gave to the world "The beautiful Arcadian scenery of this part of Staf- Seven Temptations," a series of dramatic poems; fordshire was of a character to foster a deep love a work which, in other times, would have been of the country; and is described with great ac- alone sufficient to have made and secured a very curacy in her recent prose work, "Wood Leigh-high reputation: her dramas are full of keen perton." By her mother she is descended from an ceptions, strong and accurate delineations, and ancient Irish family, and also from Wood, the ill-powerful displays of character. She afterwards used Irish patentee, who was ruined by the selfish prepared for the press a collection of her most malignity of Dean Swift,-from whose aspersions popular ballads, a class of writing in which she his character was vindicated by Sir Isaac New- greatly excels all her contemporaries. She is also ton. A true statement of the whole affair may be well known to the young by her "Sketches of seen in Ruding's "Annals of Coinage." Charles Natural History," "Tales in Verse," and other Wood, her grandfather, was the first who intro- productions written expressly for their use and duced platina into England from Jamaica, where pleasure. he was assay-master. Her parents being strict members of the society of Friends, and her father being, indeed, of an old line who suffered persecution in the early days of Quakerism, her education was of an exclusive character; and her knowledge of books confined to those approved of by the most strict of her own people, till a later period than most young persons become acquainted with them. Their effect upon her mind was, consequently, so much the more vivid. Indeed, she describes her overwhelming astonishment and delight in the treasures of general and modern literature, to be like what Keats says his feelings were when a new world of poetry opened upon him, through Chapman's "Homer,”— -as to

the astronomer,

"When a new planet swims into his ken." Among poetry there was none which made a stronger impression than our simple old ballad, which she and a sister near her own age, and of similar taste and temperament, used to revel in, making at the same time many young attempts in epic, dramatic, and ballad poetry. In her twenty-first year she was married to William Howitt, a gentleman well calculated to encourage and promote her poetical and intellectual taste, himself a poet of considerable genius, and the author of various well-known works. We have reason to believe that her domestic life has been a singularly happy one. Mr. and Mrs. Howitt spent the year after their marriage in Staffordshire. They then removed to Nottingham, where they

Mrs. Howitt is distinguished by the mild, unaffected, and conciliatory manners, for which "the people called Quakers" have always been remarkable. Her writings, too, are in keeping with her character: in all there is evidence of peace and good-will; a tender and a trusting nature; a gentle sympathy with humanity; and a deep and fervent love of all the beautiful works which the Great Hand has scattered so plentifully before those by whom they can be felt and appreciated. She has mixed but little with the world; the home-duties of wife and mother have been to her productive of more pleasant and far happier results than struggles for distinction amid crowds; she has made her reputation quietly but securely; and has laboured successfully as well as earnestly to inculcate virtue as the noblest attribute of an English woman. If there be some of her contemporaries who have surpassed her in the higher qualities of poetry,-some who have soared higher, and others who have taken a wider range,-there are none whose writings are better calculated to delight as well as inform. Her poems are always graceful and beautiful, and often vigorous; but they are essentially feminine: they afford evidence of a kindly and generous nature, as well as of a fertile imagination, and a safely-cultivated mind. She is entitled to a high place among the Poets of Great Britain; and a still higher among those of her sex by whom the intellectual rank of woman has been asserted without presump. tion, and maintained without display.

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