VICTORIAN POETRY
John Drinkwater
DORAN’S MODERN READERS’ BOOKSHELF
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Gilbert K. Chesterton
THE STORY OF THE RENAISSANCE
Sidney Dark
VICTORIAN POETRY
John Drinkwater
THE POETRY OF ARCHITECTURE
Frank Rutter
ATOMS AND ELECTRONS
J. W. N. Sullivan
EVERYDAY BIOLOGY
J. Arthur Thomson
Other Volumes in Preparation
VICTORIAN POETRY
BY
JOHN DRINKWATER
NEW
YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1924,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
VICTORIAN POETRY
—B—
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
GEORGE GORDON
[vii]
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Of all human ambitions an open mind eagerly expectant of newdiscoveries and ready to remold convictions in the light ofadded knowledge and dispelled ignorances and misapprehensions,is the noblest, the rarest and the most difficult to achieve.
James Harvey Robinson, in“The Humanising of Knowledge.”
It is the purpose of Doran’s Modern Readers’ Bookshelf tobring together in brief, stimulating form a group of books that willbe fresh appraisals of many things that interest modern men and women.Much of History, Literature, Biography and Science is of intensefascination for readers to-day and is lost to them by reason of beingsurrounded by a forbidding and meticulous scholarship.
These books are designed to be simple, short, authoritative, and suchas would arouse the interest of intelligent readers. As nearly aspossible they will be intended, in Professor Robinson’s[viii] words quotedabove, “to remold convictions in the light of added knowledge.”
This “adding of knowledge” and a widespread eagerness for it are twoof the chief characteristics of our time. Never before, probably, hasthere been so great a desire to know, or so many exciting discoveriesof truth of one sort or another. Knowledge and the quest for it hasnow about it the glamour of an adventure. To the quickening of thisspirit in our day Doran’s Modern Readers’ Bookshelf hopes tocontribute.
In addition to the volumes announced here others are in preparationfor early publication. The Editors will welcome suggestions for theBookshelf and will be glad to consider any manuscriptssuitable for inclusion.
The Editors.
[ix]
PREFACE
This book is called Victorian Poetry for convenience. It doesnot, it need hardly be said, pretend to anything like a thoroughexamination of the