Poetry and Drama
Browning, Robert: Besides the poems given in these books, The Lost Leader and Rabbi Ben Ezra are enjoyed by boys and girls.
Bryant, William Cullen: The Poetical Works (Household Edition), D. Appleton & Co. The Song of Marion’s Men, The Green Mountain Boys, Thanatopsis, Sella, The Death of the Flowers, The Planting of the Apple Tree and Robert of Lincoln are among his best poems.
Shakespeare, William: Julius Cæsar and Coriolanus, two plays based on Roman history and excellent for reading purposes; Richard II (1398-1399), Henry IV (1402-1413), Henry V (1414-1420), Henry VI (1422-1471), Richard III (1471-1485), all based on English history; As You Like It, a great comedy; Hamlet and King Lear, perhaps the two greatest tragedies. All these are excellent reading, especially in such an edition as the Temple Classics. Other plays may well be read, but everyone should know the foregoing list.
Essays
Emerson, Ralph Waldo: The American Scholar, Self-Reliance, Culture and Behavior may be read with profit by the young, even if they do not fully understand the philosophy.
Hale, Edward Everett: American Essays and English Essays, two books edited by Hale. They contain selections from the writings of George William Curtis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, James Russell Lowell, Addison, Goldsmith, Lamb and Thackeray.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, a charming series of talks which embody the best of Holmes’s wit, wisdom and philosophy. One of those things everybody must read.
Irving, Washington: The Sketch Book contains such perfect stories as Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, as well as a number of fine essays for later reading.
Roosevelt, Theodore: American Ideals and Other Essays. Putnam.