Look inside ...    The Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 3 by Arthur Quiller-Couch The Oxford Book of English Verse in its entirety is a choice collection of over 800 poems spanning the period from 1250-1900, selected and edited by the eminent British literary figure, Arthur Quiller-Couch. This third part roughly covers the period from 1650 to 1800 and as such guides the reader through the poetic work of one of the more tumultuous eras in English history. John Milton with 18 poems included opens the volume and Robert Burns with 14 selections closes it. In between we have 67 other poets represented. Richard Crashaw (7), Richard Lovelace (5), Andrew Marvell (6), and John Dryden (5), along with John Milton, are the poets most prominently featured from the seventeenth century, while Matthew Prior (5) and William Blake (12) join Robert Burns as those representing the eighteenth century to the greatest extent. Quiller-Couch gathered most of the Ballads (26) into the middle of the seventeenth century, where, he says, "they fill a languid interval between two winds of inspiration-the Italian dying down with Milton and the French following at the heels of the restored Royalists." Having set his heart on choosing the best, the compiler consulted existing anthologies, but only after making his own choice. As he says, "The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so."  Ages 12-18 251 pages $14.95

Table of Contents

Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
On Time
At a Solemn Musick
L'Allegro
Il Penseroso
From Arcades
From Comus: First Selection
From Comus: Second Selection
From Comus: Third Selection
From Comus: Fourth Selection
Lycidas
To the Lady Margaret Ley
On His Blindness
To Mr. Lawrence
To Cyriack Skinner
On His Deceased Wife
Light
From Samson Agonistes: First Selection
From Samson Agonistes: Second Selection
A Doubt of Martyrdom
The Constant Lover
Why So Pale and Wan?
When, Dearest, I But Think of Thee
A Rose
To Chloe
Falsehood
On the Queen's Return from the Low Countries
On a Virtuous Young Gentlewoman That Died Suddenly
I'll Never Love Thee More
Coronemus Nos Rosis Antequam Marcescant
Wishes to His Supposed Mistress
The Weeper
A Hymn to the Name and Honour of Saint Teresa
Upon the Book and Picture of Saint Teresa
Verses from the Shepherds' Hymn
Christ Crucified
An Epitaph Upon Husband and Wife
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
To Lucasta, Going Beyond the Seas
Gratiana Dancing
To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair
The Grasshopper
To Althea, From Prison
Anacreontics I: Drinking
Anacreontics II: The Epicure
Anacreontics III: The Swallow
On the Death of Mr. William Hervey
The Wish
The Resolve
An Horatian Ode
A Garden
To His Coy Mistress
The Picture of Little T. C.
Thoughts in a Garden
Bermudas
An Epitaph
The Retreat
Peace
The Timber
Friends Departed
The Shepherd Boy Sings
Thomas the Rhymer
Sir Patrick Spens
The Lass of Lochroyan
The Dowie Houms of Yarrow
Clerk Saunders
Fair Annie
Edward, Edward
Edom o' Gordon
The Queen's Marie
Binnorie
The Bonnie House o' Airlie
The Wife of Usher's Well
The Three Ravens
The Twa Corbies
A Lyke-Wake Dirge
The Seven Virgins
Two Rivers
Cradle Song
The Call
The Bonny Earl of Murray
Helen of Kirconnell
Waly, Waly
Barbara Allen's Cruelty
Pipe and Can
Love Will Find Out the Way
Phillada Flouts Me
Chloris in the Snow
The Relapse
Chloe Divine
To Coelia
To One Persuading a Lady to Marriage
Ode
A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687
Ah, How Sweet It Is to Love!
Hidden Flame
Song to a Fair Young Lady, Going Out of the Town
Against Indifference
Song
To a Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her
News
The Sad Day
Song
To Chloris
To Celia
Song
The Libertine
Return
Love and Life
Constancy
To His Mistress
The Reconcilement
On One Who Died Discovering Her Kindness
The Enchantment
A Quiet Soul
Song
The Question to Lisetta
To a Child of Quality
Song
On My Birthday, July 21
The Lady Who Offers Her Looking-Glass to Venus
A Letter
For My Own Monument
Rivals
Werena My Heart's Licht I Wad Dee
False Though She Be
A Hue and Cry After Fair Amoret
Hymn
The Day of Judgement
A Cradle Hymn
Song
Peggy
On a Fly Drinking Out of His Cup
Song
On a Certain Lady at Court
Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
The Dying Christian to his Soul
Shorten Sail
Sally in our Alley
A Drinking Song
The Rosebud
Belinda's Recovery from Sickness
On the Death of a Particular Friend
Tell Me, My Heart, If This Be Love
One-and-Twenty
On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet
Absence