Customer Reviews

Palgrave's Golden Treasury

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English lyrical poetry is among the world's finest poetry. Many years ago Francis Turner Palgrave, a professor of poetry at Oxford, compiled a highly respected anthology of English lyrical poetry.

I clearly recall my excitement in my first reading of Palgrave's collection. I have since become familiar with several other good anthologies, but Palgrave's remains my favorite.

Palgrave's remarkable anthology of English lyrical poetry is found with various titles: "The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language", or "Palgrave's Golden Treasury from Shakespeare to the Present", or "Palgrave's Golden Treasury", or simply "The Golden Treasury". Sometimes one title is found on the book cover and another on the title page.

Palgrave's "The Golden Treasury" has remained continuously in print since 1861, with Oxford University Press editions in 1907, 1909, 1929, 1940, 1964 (Section V added), and 1994 (Section V1 added). New printings occur every few years.

Today this remarkable anthology is now nearly 700 pages. The font size is large and easy to read.

Palgrave's somewhat sparse footnotes are only available for Sections I-IV. Many readers may need a good dictionary for occasional archaic words and unfamiliar references to Greek and Roman mythology. I have found it quite helpful and entertaining to have a copy of Bulfinch's The Age of Fable nearby. Whichever edition and printing that you acquire, I hope you enjoy Palgrave's selections as much as I did. Cheers.

There's lots of good stuff in this book. It's very sturdy and has a poem for every mood.

But sometimes, it felt like it was missing some of the classic poems I was looking for, but I'm not a hardcore English or poetry studier. Maybe it was okay that it was like that.

I positively loved the original sections that Palgrave chose, which are in the beginning, rather than the more modern poems.

I liked it. I recommend it as a good starting poetry anthology. =)