BEST LOVED POEMS
Edited by Richard Charlton MacKenzie
Permabooks
©1946, BY GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING CO., INC.
Introduction
Here is a collection of the poetry that America loves best. These are the poems that people ask for again and again—the old familiar favorites, known and loved since childhood, along with the newer selections that have won a place in the hearts of readers. These poems have something to say to us all, as, by common consent, each one has expressed a thought or crystallized an emotion with, a deeper and more enduring understanding. They all center on the great and universal things of life—Love, Home and Childhood, Faith and Immortality, Love of Country, Nature, and, since it too is a deeply human thing, Humor. The poems in this book are therefore arranged according to these classifications. The final chapter is devoted to the best-known old favorite story poems.
To facilitate the reader’s finding the desired poem, an index of first lines is included. Within the sections, the poems are arranged alphabetically according to the author’s last name.
Here, then, are many hours of reading pleasure, when one may reread the poems that are part of our common heritage, renew one’s acquaintance with some half-remembered poem that may have been lost sight of over the years, and perhaps be introduced to a new selection that will be an old favorite of tomorrow.
R. C. M.
Acknowledgments
The editor wishes to express his thanks to the following authors, publishers, and agents for permission to use the poems indicated;
Alice E. Allen—for “My Mother’s Garden,”
Mrs. Young E. Allison—for “Derelict,” by Young E. Allison.
John Bennett—for “Her Answer” and “In a Rose Garden.”
Berton Braley— for “The Thinker.”
Hally Carrington Brent—for “I Think I Know No Finer Things Than Dogs”
Mrs. George Sargent Burgess and the Estate of Katharine Lee Bates—for “America, the Beautiful,” by Katharine Lee Bates
Mrs. William Herbert Carruth-for “Each In His Own Tongue,” by William Herbert Carrutri.
David Cory—for “Miss You.”
W. B. Conkey Co.—for “You Never Can Tell” and “Will,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
Dodd, Mead and Co.—for “The Soldier,” from The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke; “Kashmiri Song,” from Indian Love Lyrics, by Laurence Hope; “The Spell of the Yukon” and “The Shooting of Dan McGrew,” from The Spell of the Ytifyn, by Robert W. Service; “Death Is a Door,” by Nancy Byrd Turner.
Louise Driscoll——for “Hold Fast Your Dreams!”
E, P. Dutton and Co., Inc.—for “The Donkey,” from The Wild Knight and other Poems, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton; “The Spires of Oxford,” from The Spires of Oxford and other Poems, by Winifred M. Letts.
Mrs. Max Ehrmann—for “A Prayer,” by Max Ehrmann.
Anna B. Gruber—for “My Neighbor’s Roses,” by Abraham L. Gruber.
Robert Browning Hamilton—for “Along the Road.”
Houghton, Mifflin Co.—for “Memory,” by Thomas Bailey Aid-rich; “Waiting,” by John Burroughs; “Out Where the West Begins,” by Arthur Chapman; “My Wage,” from The Door of Rewards and Fairies, by Rudyard Kipling; “The Vampire,” from Rudyard Kipling’s Versa—Definitive Edition; “Mother o’ Mine,” from The Light that Failed, by Rudyard Kipling.
Mrs. Nixon Waterman—for “To Know All Is to Forgive All” and “Far from the Madding Crowd,” from A Rose to the Living and other Poems, by Nixon Waterman.
Mary Brent Whiteside—for “Who Has Known Heights.”
Victor Elaine Wright—for “The Want of You.”
Barbara Young—for “I Hear It Said.”
Contents
POEMS OF LOVE
You and I by Henry Alford
How Many Times Do I Love Thee by Thomas L. Beddoes
Her Answer by John Bennett
In a Rose Garden by John Bennett
Love’s Secret by William Blake
Light by Francis W. Bourdillon
Sonnet from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Suminum Bonuni by Robert Browning
Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns
My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
John Anderson, My Jo by Robert Burns
She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
Maid of Athens by Lord Byron
Ossian’s Serenade by Major Colder Campbell
Sally in Our Alley by Henry Carey
Answer to a Child’s Question by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Miss You by David Cory
Douglas, Douglas, Tender, and True by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Friendship by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Love by Roy Crop
To a Friend by Grace Strickler Daivson
Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae by Ernest Dowson
I Want You by Arthur L. Gittom
Song by Gerald Griffin
Any Wife or Husband by Carol Haynes
To Dianeme by Robert Herrick
The Night Piece, to Julia by Robert Herrick
To Anthea by Robert Herrick
Whenas in Silks My Julia Goes by Robert Herrick
Kashmiri Song by Laurence Hope
Jenny Kissed Me by Leigh Hunt
We Have Lived and Loved Together by Charles Jefferys
To Celia by Ben Jonson
The Blue Bowl by Blanche Bane Kuder
Her Lips by Walter Savage Landor
Evening Song by Sidney Lanier
Serenade by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To Althea from Prison by Richard Lovelace
To Lucasta, on going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace
Apelles’ Song by John Lyly
Sweet Peril by George MacDonald
I Love My Love by Charles Mackay
Faustus to Helen by Christopher Marlowe
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms by Thomas Moore
A Temple to Friendship by Thomas Moore
Kate Kearney by Lady Morgan
Love Is Enough by William Morris
Forget Thee? by John Moultrie
The Enchantment by Thomas Otway
New Friends and Old Friends by Joseph Parry
To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe
Fidelis by Adelaide Anne Procter
An Old Sweetheart of Mine by James Whitcomb Riley
When I Am Dead, My Dearest by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Remember by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Midsummer by Sydney King Russell
Our Own by Margaret E. Sangster
How I Love You by John Godfrey Saxe
Who Is Sylvia? by William Shakespeare
Sonnet by William Shakespeare
One Word Is Too Often Profaned by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lines to an Indian Air by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Kisses by William Strode
The Constant Lover by Sir John Suckling
After Love by Arthur Symons
Bedouin Song by Bayard Taylor
Song by Alfred Tennyson
At Nightfall by Charles Hanson Towne
Creed by Mary Ashley Townsend
All Paths Lead to You by Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff
Song by Edmund Waller
Lucy by William Wordsworth
She Was a Phantom of Delight by William Wordsworth
The Want of You by Ivan Leonard Wright
If You’re Ever Going to Love Me Anonymous
If You But Knew Anonymous
Love Me Little, Love Me
Long Anonymous
Will You Love Me When I’m Old Anonymous
HOME AND CHILDHOOD
My Mother’s Garden by Alice E. Allen
Rock Me to Sleep by Elizabeth Alters Allen
Infant Joy by William Blake
A Prayer for a Little Home by Florence Bone
Home-Thoughts from Abroad by Robert Browning
My Heart’s in the Highlands by Robert Burns
Lullaby Town by John Irving Diller
A Dutch Lullaby by Eugene Field
Little Boy Blue by Eugene Field
I Remember, I Remember by Thomas Hood
Mother o’ Mine by Rudyard Kipling
The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb
Memory by Abraham Lincoln
Woodman, Spare that Tree by George Pope Morris
Home, Sweet Home by John Howard Payne
The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson
My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson
Whole Duty of Children by Robert Louis Stevenson
Young Night Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Land of Story-books by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Land of Counterpane by Robert Louis Stevenson
Home Is Where There Is One to Love Us by Charles Swum
First Footsteps by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Sweet and Low by Alfred Tennyson
The Old Oaken Bucket by Samuel Woodworth
POEMS OF INSPIRATION
Be Strong by Maltbie Davenport Babcock
Then Laugh by Bertha Adams Backus
The Thinker by Berton Braley
Life’s Mirror by “Madeline Bridges”
Reward of Service by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Today by Thomas Carlyle
Out Where the West Begins by Arthur Chapman
Three Gates by Beth Day
Hold Fast Your Dreams by Louise Driscott
The Bridge Builder by Will Allen Dromgoole
My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is by Sir Edward Dyer
Count that Day Lost by George Eliot
Little Things by Julia A. Fletcher
The House by the Side of the Road by Sam Walter Foss
The Human Touch by Spencer Michael Free
Your Mission by Ellen M. Huntington Gates
Like Mother, Like Son by Margaret Johnston Grafflin
My Neighbor’s Roses by Abraham L. Gruber
Myself by Edgar A. Guest
Lord, Make a Regular Man out of Me by Edgar A Guest
It Couldn’t Be Done by Edgar A. Guest
Look Up by Edward Everett Hale
Invictus by William Ernest Henley
Duty by Ellen S. Hooper
Lines from “Endymion” by John Keats
Absence by Frances Anne Kemble
A Farewell by Charles Kingsley
If— by Rudyard Kipling
Happiness by Priscilla Leonard
A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Columbus by Joaquin Miller
Small Things by Richard Monckton Milnes
Sonnet on His Blindness by John Milton
Who Hath a Book by Wilber D. Nesbit
Vitaï Lampada by Henry Newbolt
The Cry of a Dreamer by John Boyle O’Reilly
The Common Road by Silas H. Perkins
He Is Not Dead by James Whitcomb Riley
My Wage by Jessie B. Riftenhouse
A Bag of Tools by R. L. Sharps
Opportunity by Edward Rowland Sill
To Know All Is to Forgive All by Nixon Waterman
You Never Can Tell by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Will by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“I Hear It Said” by Barbara Young
Always Finish Anonymous
I Shall not Pass this Way Again Anonymous
Charity Anonymous
He Who Knows Persian Proverb
Horse Sense Anonymous
Our Lips and Ears Anonymous
Living Anonymous
FAITH AND IMMORTALITY
A Soul’s Soliloquy by Wenonah Stevens Abbott
Nearer, My God, to Thee by Sarah F. Adams
All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Frances Alexander
Beautiful Things by Ellen P. Allerton
No Funeral Gloom by William Allingham
Life by Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Onward, Christian Soldiers by Sabine Baring-Gould
The Lamb by William Blake
God Is Love by John Bowring
Not Understood by Thomas Bracken
Last Lines by Emily Bronte
Christmas Everywhere by Phillips Broods
O Little Town of Bethlehem by Phillips Broods
Pray Without Ceasing by Ophelia Guyon Browning
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant
Truth, Crushed to Earth by William Cullen Bryant
Waiting by John Burroughs
Each in His Own Tongue by William Herbert Carruth
Nearer Home by Phoebe Gary
There Is No Unbelief by Elizabeth York Case
The Abiding Love by John White Chadwick
A Prayer for Everyday by Mary Carolyn Dames
Sorrow by Sir Aubrey De Vere
Evening Contemplation by George Washington Doane
Hymn by James Edmeston
A Prayer by Max Ehrmann
The Choir Invisible by George Eliot
When Wilt Thou Save Thy People by Ebenezer Elliott
My Evening Prayer by Charles H. Gabriel
Sleep Sweet by Ellen M. Huntington Gates
Elegy written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
The Lord God Planted a Garden by Dorothy Frances
Along the Road by Robert Browning Hamilton
A Hymn of Trust by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt
Immortality by Joseph Jefferson
Recessional by Rudyard Kipling
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Abide with Me by Henry F. Lyte
Opportunity by Walter Malone
A Creed by Edwin Markham
There Is No Death by J. H. McCreery
How Far to Bethlehem by Madeleine Sweeny Miller
Lead, Kindly Light by John Henry Newman
I See His Blood upon the Rose by Joseph Mary Plunkett
The Dying Christian to His Soul by Alexander Pope
Ad Coelum by Harry Rontaine
Up-Hill by Christina Georgina Rossetti
The Book of Books by Sir Walter Scott
I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger
This, Too, Shall Pass Away by Lanta Wilson Smith
Requiem by Robert Louis Stevenson
Stanzas from “In Memoriam” by Alfred Tennyson
Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred Tennyson
Crossing the Bar by Alfred Tennyson
Even This Shall Pass Away by Theodore Tilton
Rock of Ages by Augustus M. Toplady
Death Is a Door by Nancy Byrd Turner
These Are the Gifts I Ask by Henry Van Dyke
O God, Our Help in Ages Past by Isaac Watts
An Ancient Prayer by Thomas H. B. Webb
Jesus, Lover of My Soul by Charles Wesley
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
The Bible by John Greenleaf Whittier
At Last by John Greenleaf Whittier
The Rainbow by William Wordsworth
The Twenty-Third Psalm from the Bible
The Loom of Time Anonymous
The Anvil—God’s Word Anonymous
There Is No Death Anonymous
POEMS OF PATRIOTISM
America, the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates
The Flag Goes By by Henry Holcomb Bennett
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
Ode by William Collins
Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Coming American by Sam Walter Pass
The Flag of Peace by Charlotte Perkins Oilman
God, Give Us Men by Josiah Gilbert Holland
Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Battle-Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe
What Constitutes a State? by Sir William Jones
The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key
From “The Ship of State” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Slaves by James Russell Lowell
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
The Harp that Once through Tara’s Halls by Thomas Moore
Breathes There the Man by Sir Walter Scott
I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman
NATURE AND REFLECTION
Memory by Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Quiet Work by Matthew Arnold
Let Me Grow Lovely by Karle Wilson Baker
Dream-Pedlary by Thomas L. Beddoes
I Think I Know No Finer Things Than Dogs by Hally Carrington Brent
My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown
The Year’s at the Spring by Robert Browning
Man’s Inhumanity to Man by Robert Burns
For A’ That and A’ That by Robert Burns
The Banks o’ Doon by Robert Burns
The Old Woman by Joseph Campbell
The Donkey by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
The Blind Boy by Colley Gibber
Red Geraniums by Martha Haskell Clark
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Retirement by William Cowper
A Sea-Song by Allan Cunningham
I’ll Tell You How the Sun Rose by Emily Dickinson
Bishop Doane on His Dog by George Washington Doane
A Little Work by George DuMaurier
Stanzas from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward FitzGerald
Out in the Fields by Louise Imogen Guiney
To the Virgins by Robert Herrick
October’s Bright Blue Weather by Helen Hunt Jackson
Who Loves a Garden by Louise Seymour Jones
Sonnet by John Keats
Trust by Frances Anne Kemble
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
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