Second, of Longfellow; and the Third, of Aldrich. Since the periods must
of course overlap, this division of the poems can be at most only
suggestive.

I have made it no part of my design to grant to the better known poets a
larger number of lyrics than those given later and younger men. I have
paid no regard to that purely conventional idea of proportion, that
would assign to five or six writers a dozen selections each, and to
another set of poets, in proportion to their popular fame, half that
number. We can safely leave the final adjustment of all rival claims to
Time, the best critic; in the meanwhile having the more modest aim of
selecting, irrespective of contemporary judgments, whatever is best
suited to our purpose.

A word more should be said about the title. I have not interpreted the
term lyric so rigidly as to exclude sonnets, ballads, elegiac verse, or
even pieces of almost pure description. If I had held to the strictest
sense of lyric, this book would never have been compiled; for I suspect
nothing will strike the reader more forcibly than the fact that, despite
the excellence of the poems included, there is a notable lack of
unconsciousness--of pure singing quality. Such things as Pinkney's
"Health" and Holmes's "Old Ironsides" are the exception. The poems are
composed cleverly, but they do not quite sing themselves to their own
music. The best American verse, while not insincere, is seldom wholly
spontaneous. This is not saying that much spontaneous verse has not been
written in this country; much has been, but the singer's voice has too
often been uncultivated, and the product inartistic.

The names of many popular poets are entirely omitted. In no case,
however, was this probably due to oversight. I have gone over carefully