"The author of this unpretentious volume has long questioned the advisability of adding a book to our already inflated and overloaded literature, unless it should contain something in the nature of a deviation from beaten literary paths.
Whether the reading public will regard this as such or not is a question for the future to determine, as every book is a creature of circumstance, and at the date of its publication an algebraic unknown quantity.
It was not the original intention of the author to publish any of his effusions in collective form until more mature years and riper judgment should better qualify him for the task of composition, and should enable him to still further pursue the important studies of etymology, rhetoric, Latin and Greek, and complete the education which youthful environment denied.
On the 17th of March, A.D. 1900, occurred an accident in the form of a premature mining explosion which banished the light of the Colorado sun from his eyes forever, adding the almost insurmountable barrier of total and hopeless blindness to those of limited means and insufficient education. At first further effort seemed useless, but as time meliorates in some degree even the most deplorable and distressing physical conditions, ambition slowly rallied, and while lying for several months a patient in various hospitals in an ineffectual attempt to regain even partial sight, the following ideas and efforts of past years were gradually recalled from the recesses of memory, and reduced to their present form, in which, with no small hesitation and misgiving, they are presented to the consideration of the reading public, which in the humble opinion of the author has frequently failed to receive and appreciate productions of vastly superior merit." (Excerpt from the Preface)
This is Volume 5: Poems of Meditation and of Forest and Field of the collected works of Madison Julius Cawein, an American poet from Kentucky. It begins with the long poem Intimations of the Beautiful and falls into three sections: Poems of Meditation, Poems of Forest and Field, and Footpaths.
This is a collection of poems by Marietta Holley, better known as Josiah Allen's Wife.
This is a collection of 27 poems, some seasonal to New Years and Christmas, but others on themes of religion, nature and home.
Written by poet Irving Sydney Dix in 1913 for "evidence of my love for and interest in the greatest of all the arts," this little collection of poems includes "The Calendar," "Fairies of the Frost," and "The Sinking of the Titanic."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox is an American poet known for her popular lyrics that capture positive and uplifting themes. This volume is quite diverse, including the concluding piece that is read as a little play. Her preface to expresses the unique character of this collection. “I am constantly urged by readers and impersonators to furnish them with verses for recitation. In response to this ever-increasing demand I have selected, for this volume, the poems which seem suitable for such a purpose. In making my collection I have been obliged to use, not those which are among my best efforts in a literary or artistic sense, but those which contain the best dramatic possibilities for professionals. Several of the poems are among my earliest efforts, others were written expressly for this book. In “Meg’s Curse,” which has never before been in print, and in several others, I ignored all rules of art for the purpose of giving the public reader a better chance to exercise his elocutionary powers.