The value of this volume consists in the genuineness of its
contents, and the healthiness of its tone. While fashionable life
was masquerading in imaginary Arcadias, and deluging theatres and
concert rooms with shams, the English peasant remained true to the
realities of his own experience, and produced and sang songs which
faithfully reflected the actual life around him. Whatever these
songs describe is true to that life. There are no fictitious
raptures in them. Love here never dresses its emotions in
artificial images, nor disguises itself in the mask of a Strephon
or a Daphne. It is in this particular aspect that the poetry of
the country possesses a permanent and moral interest.

R. B.



ANCIENT POEMS, BALLADS, AND SONGS OF THE PEASANTRY.




Contents

Poems:

The plain-dealing man.
The vanities of life.
The life and age of man.
The young man's wish.
The midnight messenger; or, a sudden call from an earthly glory to