Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard
Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest
writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was
assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926),
Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr.
Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic
liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works
that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume XL is the first of
three volumes that ambitiously survey half a milliennium of poetry in
the English language. Almost 300 works by more than 75 authors in this
volume alone span the 14th through 18th centuries, and include: -
Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" - George
Gascoigne: "A Lover's Lullaby" - Sir Walter Raleigh: "His Pilgrimage" -
Sir Philip Sidney: "A Ditty" - Edmund Spenser: "Rudely Thou Wrongest My
Dear Heart's Desire" - Christopher Marlowe: "The Passionate Shepherd to
His Love" - William Shakespeare: "O Mistress Mine" - Thomas Campion:
"Follow thy Fair Sun" - Ben Jonson: "The Noble Nature" - John Donne:
"Stay, O Sweet" - George Herbert: "The Elixir" - Richard Lovelace: "To
Lucasta, on Going to the Wars" - Andrew Marvell: "Love Will Find Out the
Way" - John Dryden: "Song for St. Cecilia's Day" - Alexander Pope: "On a
Certain Lady at Court" - Thomas Gray: "Elegy" as well as traditional
ballads and numerous works by writers who remain anonymous to us today.
Useful explanatory footnotes explain the meanings of obsolete and rare
words, as well as those in dialect.
