PREFACE
It will be readily apparent that the aim of this volume is to collect the choicest poems on Cupid scattered throughout English literature. A large harvest has been gleaned, and what my judgment counts excellent, so far as practicable, is represented. The attitude towards Cupid has mostly been one of obstinate resistance, but he has the element that wins,—sometimes fantastically, sometimes pathetically. The beleaguering little rogue never quits the field defeated,—to him no suit is hopeless.
If some of the verses are not of high value as compositions they are all-important when considered relative to the subject, and a majority of the poems are of unquestionable literary merit.
I beg to acknowledge the gracious favor of The Century Co., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Life Publishing Co., Frederick A. Stokes Co., G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Charles Scribner’s Sons, Cassell Publishing Co., and D. Appleton & Co., for the use of copyright poems. I also gratefully acknowledge the eminent courtesy of individual authors for permission to reprint.
I. R. W.
IN CUPID’S COURT
