have endeavoured to profit in the case of this, the younger born
of the two attempts made by me to transplant the muse of Germany
to the shores of Britain, by the criticisms, whether friendly or
hostile, that have been evoked or provoked by the appearance of
its elder brother.

As already mentioned, the latter contained the whole of the
Poems of Schiller. It is impossible, in anything like the same
compass, to give all the writings of Goethe comprised under the
general title of Gedichte, or poems. They contain between 30,000
and 40,000 verses, exclusive of his plays. and similar works.
Very many of these would be absolutely without interest to the
English reader,--such as those having only a local application,
those addressed to individuals, and so on. Others again, from
their extreme length, could only be published in separate
volumes. But the impossibility of giving all need form no
obstacle to giving as much as possible; and it so happens that
the real interest of Goethe's Poems centres in those classes of
them which are not too diffuse to run any risk when translated of
offending the reader by their too great number. Those by far the
more generally admired are the Songs and Ballads, which are about
150 in number, and the whole of which are contained in this
volume (with the exception of one or two of the former, which
have been, on consideration, left out by me owing to their
trifling and uninteresting nature). The same may be said of the
Odes, Sonnets, Miscellaneous Poems, &c.

In addition to those portions of Goethe's poetical works which
are given in this complete form, specimens of the different other
classes of them, such as the Epigrams, Elegies, &c., are added,