The World's Best Poetry, Volume 08: National Spirit
Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Leonard Johnson, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.
I Home: Friendship II Love III Sorrow and Consolation IV The Higher Life V Nature VI Fancy: Sentiment VII Descriptive: Narrative VIII National Spirit IX Tragedy: Humor X Poetical Quotations
Editor-in-Chief BLISS CARMAN
Associate Editors John Vance Cheney Charles G.D. Roberts Charles F. Richardson Francis H. Stoddard
Managing Editor John R. Howard
1904.
The World's Best Poetry Vol. VIII NATIONAL SPIRIT
Clever men of action, according to Bacon, despise studies, ignorant men too much admire them, wise men make use of them. Yet, he says, they teach not their own use, but that there is a wisdom without them and above them won by observation. These are the words of a man who had been taught by years of studiousness the emptiness of mere study. It does not teach its own usefulness, and gives its most important lesson if through it we learn that beyond lies a region from which may come a truer wisdom won by observation. This, when all is said, is the one great defect of any system of study, in that it teaches not its own use. No amount of study of the principles of barter will make a man a great merchant. One can study painting and learn all the characteristics and methods and schools of the art and yet not be able to paint a picture. No amount of study of poetry will make a man a poet. So the crafty men of action contemn studies, and the wise men who use them look beyond them for their value. English literature, said a noted professor not long ago, cannot be taught ; and certain it is that even with the most advanced analytical text-book one cannot get a final satisfaction from doing a sum in English literature as one would work a problem in arithmetic. When applied to the higher arts, study, deep and true as one can make it, leaves one the surer that there is a wisdom beyond, which cometh not by study alone.
Least of all can the deepest things in poetry be learned by mere study. Poetry deals with feeling, which study excludes. Study, indeed, seems to belong exclusively to the prose habit; it seems to be of the intellect and not of the emotions; to be of the mind and not of the spirit. We cannot write a text-book in poetry, nor can we ever in a text-book written in prose put all the secret of poetry. Beyond the text-book always lies the higher wisdom born of that which Bacon called observation, which most of us now call insight, that immediate apprehension of the highest relations which comes as a revelation in our inspired moments.
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THE WORLD'S BEST POETRY
THE STUDY OF POETRY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
POEMS OF NATIONAL SPIRIT.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A STATE?
BREATHES THERE THE MAN?
MY COUNTRY.
FATHER AND MOTHER TONGUE.
EAST, WEST, HOME'S BEST.
GIFTS.
ENGLAND.
RULE, BRITANNIA.
THE BOWMAN'S SONG.
THE ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND.
THE SNUG LITTLE ISLAND.
THE JACOBITE ON TOWER HILL.
GOD SAVE THE KING.
VETERAN AND RECRUIT.
THE PRIVATE OF THE BUFFS;[A] OR, THE BRITISH SOLDIER IN CHINA.
THE TURK IN ARMENIA.
AVE IMPERATRIX.
AMERICA TO GREAT BRITAIN.
HANDS ALL ROUND.
RECESSIONAL.
ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES.
SCOTLAND.
THE BARD.
II.
MY HEART'S IN THE HIGHLANDS.
THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE.
BORDER BALLAD.
THE EXILE'S SONG.
THE IRISHMAN.
TURLOUGH MACSWEENEY.
A SPINNING SONG.
THE WEARING OF THE GREEN.[A]
MY NATIVE LAND.
BLESS THE DEAR OLD VERDANT LAND.
IRELAND.
IRELAND.
EXILE OF ERIN.
AFTER DEATH.
CANADA NOT LAST.
CANADA.
WHAT IS THE GERMAN'S FATHERLAND?
PATRIOTIC SONG.
MEN AND BOYS
THE WATCH ON THE RHINE[A]
PROEM.
PARTING LOVERS.
AMERICA
COLUMBIA.
ON THE PROSPECT OF PLANTING ARTS AND LEARNING IN AMERICA.
ENGLAND TO AMERICA.
OUR STATE.
THE REPUBLIC.
AMERICA
"OLD IRONSIDES."
MEN OF THE NORTH AND WEST.
OUR COUNTRY'S CALL.
A CRY TO ARMS.
THE NATION'S PRAYER.
II.
MY MARYLAND.
DIXIE.
THE FLAG GOES BY.
THE BRAVE AT HOME.
II.
THE PLACE WHERE MAN SHOULD DIE.
LIBERTY.
PATIENCE.
THE ANTIQUITY OF FREEDOM.
HALLOWED GROUND.
THE WOLF AND THE DOG.
RIENZI TO THE ROMANS.
FALLEN GREECE.
GREECE ENSLAVED.
SONG OF THE GREEK POET.
TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON.
SLAVERY.
SONG OF THE WESTERN MEN.
THE HARP THAT ONCE THROUGH TARA'S HALLS.
AS BY THE SHORE AT BREAK OF DAY.
THE HILLS WERE MADE FOR FREEDOM.
SWITZERLAND.
MAKE WAY FOR LIBERTY!
POLAND.
THE MARSEILLAISE.
A COURT LADY.
THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS IN NEW ENGLAND.
THE AMERICAN FLAG.
THE STAR-BANGLED BANNER.[A]
NEW ENGLAND'S DEAD.
THE REFORMER.
FREEDOM OF THE MIND.
THE PRESENT CRISIS.
THE LITTLE CLOUD.[A]
BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE.
WORDS FOR THE "HALLELUJAH CHORUS."
BATTLE-HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.
JOHN CHARLES FRÉMONT.[A]
HEROES.
LAUS DEO!
A HOLY NATION.
BATTLE OF THE ANGELS.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.
THE SCHOOL OF WAR.
CATILINE TO THE ROMAN ARMY.
CARACTACUS.
SEMPRONIUS' SPEECH FOR WAR.
THE DEATH OF LEONIDAS.
SONG OF THE GREEKS.
MARCO BOZZARIS.
HARMOSAN.
BATTLE SCENE.
THE LORD OF BUTRAGO.
HAKON'S DEFIANCE.
A DANISH BARROW
HERMANN AND THUSNELDA.
THE BATTLE-SONG OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.
SWORD SONG.
THE TROOPER'S DEATH.
BINGEN ON THE RHINE.
HOHENLINDEN.
IVRY.
INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP.
THE BRONZE STATUE OF NAPOLEON.
ON THE WARRES IN IRELAND.
ALFRED THE HARPER.
CHEVY-CHACE.
SIR PATRICK SPENS.
THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY.
THE LAST HUNT.
THE BALLAD OF AGINCOURT.
THE KING TO HIS SOLDIERS BEFORE HARFLEUR.
THE CAVALIER'S SONG.
GIVE A ROUSE.
NASEBY.
THE THREE SCARS.
FONTENOY.
BATTLE OF THE BALTIC.
BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.
"PICCIOLA."
WATERLOO.
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.
THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW.
DANNY DEEVER.
WHERE ARE THE MEN?
BRUCE AND THE SPIDER.
BANNOCKBURN.
SONG OF CLAN-ALPINE.
BEAL' AN DHUINE.
PIBROCH OF DONUIL DHU.[A]
FLODDEN FIELD.
THE BONNETS OF BONNIE DUNDEE.
HYMN:
WARREN'S ADDRESS.[A]
"THE LONELY BUGLE GRIEVES."
NATHAN HALE.[A]
SONG OF MARION'S MEN.[A]
CARMEN BELLICOSUM.
THE DANCE.
MONTEREY.
COMING.
IN STATE.
II.
BROTHER JONATHAN'S LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE.
JONATHAN TO JOHN.
ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC.
THE COUNTERSIGN.
CIVIL WAR.
THE TWO WIVES.
THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MORE.
THE OLD MAN AND JIM.
STONEWALL JACKSON'S WAY
BARBARA FRIETCHIE.
CAVALRY SONG. FROM "ALICE OF MONMOUTH."
CAVALRY SONG.
KEARNY AT SEVEN PINES.[A]
THE GENERAL'S DEATH.
BAY BILLY.
WOUNDED TO DEATH.
SOMEBODY'S DARLING.
TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP.
OUR ORDERS.
WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE.
LEFT ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.
REQUIEM
MUSIC IN CAMP.
UNDER THE SHADE OF THE TREES.
THE BLACK REGIMENT.
THE HIGH TIDE AT GETTYSBURG.
LEE TO THE REAR.
DRIVING HOME THE COWS.
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.[A]
ARMY CORRESPONDENT'S LAST RIDE.
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE.[A]
THE CONQUERED BANNER.
ALL.
THE CLOSING SCENE.
THE MEN BEHIND THE GUNS.
THE BATTLE OF MANILA. A FRAGMENT.
ODE TO PEACE.
END OF THE CIVIL WAR.
DISARMAMENT.
TUBAL CAIN.
THE KNIGHT'S TOMB.
NOT ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.
THE DAY IS COMING.
THE GRAVE OF BONAPARTE.
THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM.
AT GIBRALTAR.
II.
THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD.
THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD.
AN OLD BATTLE-FIELD.
THE BATTLE-FIELD.
OUR FALLEN HEROES.
THE CAUSE OF THE SOUTH.
SENTINEL SONGS.
ODE.
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY.
CENTENNIAL HYMN.
HYMN OF THE WEST.[A]