CONTENTS

xxiii

INTRODUCTION

Reasons for the Study of Literature.—The Aim of True Literature.

- Divisions of Literature.—Outline of Literary Types.— Importance

of Poetry.—The Great Classes of Poetry.—Minor Forms of Poetry.

BOOK ONE

PART ONE.-NARRATIVE POETRY

3

CHAPTER I. THE GREAT EPIC .

Characteristics of the Great Epic.—The Great Epics of the World.

Suggestions to Students.--The Great Epics of England : “Beowulf."

"Paradise Lost.”—“Paradise Regained.”—“Drake."—Suggestions to

Students.—Some Other Works Closely Allied to the Great Epic.-

Suggestions to Students.- Review.

23

CHAPTER II. THE METRICAL ROMANCE .

Characteristics of the Metrical Romance.—The Earlier Romances in

England.—"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”—Suggestions to

Students.—“The Faerie Queene.”_Suggestions to Students.—Later

Metrical Romances.-Optional Readings.-Suggestions to Students.

-Review.

32

CHAPTER III.

THE BALLAD

The Origin of the Ballad.—Characteristics of the Ballad. Classifi-

cation of Ballads:- The Ballad Metre.-Suggestions to Students.-

Some Well Known Ballads : "The Twa Sisters.”—The Cruel

Brother.”—“Baby Lon: Or the Bonnie Banks of Fordie."__"The

Wife of Usher's Well.”—“Hind Horn.”—“Sir Patrick Spens”-Bal-

lads for Outside Readings.-Imitation Ballads: "The Ballad of the

Oysterman” (Holmes). — “Rosabelle" (Scott).-—"The Well of St.

Keyne” (Southey).—“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (Keats).- List of

Imitation Ballads for Optional Reading.--Review.

CHAPTER IV. THE METRICAL TALE

Characteristics of the Metrical Tale.-Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."

-Some Other Groups of Metrical Tales.-Suggestions to Students

Examples of Single' Metrical Tales: "The Highwayman” (Noves).
-"The Brothers" (Gibson).-List of Metrical Tales for Optional
Readings.—Review.

49

PART TW0,-LYRIC POETRY

CHARACTERISTICS OF LYRIC POETRY.-CLASSES OF

LYRIC POETRY

67

CHAPTER I. THE ODE.

Characteristics of the Ode.-Some Examples of the Ode: “Alexan-

der's Feast" (Dryden).-Suggestions to Students.—“Ode on Intima-

tions of Immortality” (Wordsworth).--Suggestions to Students.-

“Ode to the West Wind" (Shelley).-Suggestions to Students.—"Lin-

coln, the Man of the People" ( Edwin Markham).-“A Song of Vic-

tory” (Edwin Markham).- List of Great Odes for Optional Reading.

86

CHAPTER II. THE SONNET

Characteristics of the Sonnet.-Early Sonnets in England.—Later

Sonnet Writers.-Study of the Sonnet.-Shakespeare's Sonnets:

XXIX, XXX.-Milton's “Sonnet on His Blindness.”_Wordsworth's

"Composed upon Westminster Bridge, 1802,” and “London, 1802.”-

Keats's “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.”—Mrs. Brown-

ing's Sonnet XLIII from "Sonnets from the Portuguese.”—Longfel.

low's “Nature.”—Van Dyke's “Work.”—Untermeyer's “Voices."-Sug-

gestions to Students.—Some Sonnets for Optional Reading.

93

.

CHAPTER III. THE ELEGY .

Characteristics of the Elegy.-The Great English Elegies.- Milton's

“Lycidas.”—Notes on "Lroidas.”_Suggestions to Students.-Some

Well known Elegies: Dirge from "Cymbeline" (Shakespeare).-

“Lament for Culloden” (Burns):-"A Bard's Epitaph” (Burns).-

“She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways” (Wordsworth).-—"Coro-

nach” (Scott).-"Elegy” (Byron).—Extracts from “Adonais" (Shel.

ley) —Extracts from “In Memoriam” (Tennyson).—"Break, Break,

Break" (Tennyson).-"Suspiria" (Longfellow).—"To the Fire-

Bringer” (MacKaye).—List of Elegies for Optional Reading.

CHAPTER IV. THE Song: SACRED AND SECULAR

111

Distinction Between the song and Other Lyrics.—Songs hr Noted

Poets.—Shakespeare's Songs: From “Midsummer Night's Dream";

from "Cymbeline": from “Two Gentlemen of Verona"; from “Love's

Labour's Lost”; “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind," from "As You

Like It": "Under the Greenwood Tree," from "As You Like It.”-

Ben Jonson's "Song to Celia.”—Burns's “Scots Wha Hae Wi' Wal-

lace Bled," "John Anderson," and "Ae Fond Kiss."- Moore's "The

Harp That Once Through Tara's Jlalls ”—Tennyson's “Blow, Bugle,

Blow."—Longfellow's "The Arrow and the Song.”—Field's "Little

Blue Pigeon."—Alfred Moyes's “Slumber Songs of the Madonna"

(Stanza I).-Some Well Known Songs.- A Group of Patriotic Songs,

American and English.—Some of the Best Known Sacred Songs.

CHAPTER V. THE SIMPLE LYRIC .

122

Some Well Known Lyrics.-Chaucer's “Complaint to His Empty

Purse.”—Milton's "L'Allegro."-Suggestions to Students.-General

Plan of the Poem and Glossary.-Milton's “Il Penseroso."-Sugges-

tions to Students.-Notes, General Plan and Glossary.-Swinburne's

"Étude Réalisté.”_Stevenson's "Lost Youth” and “The Celestial

Surgeon."- Markham's “Victory in Defeat.”—Van Dyke's "A Mile

With Ne.”—Scollard's "A Bell.”—Brown's “The Heritage,”—John

McCrae's “In Flanders Fields.”—Nelson Robins's "The Best.”—Sug-

gestions to Students.—A Few Famous Lyrical Poems for Optional

Readings.-Review of Lyric Poetry.

PART THREE.-DRAMATIC POETRY

149

CHAPTER VI. DRAMATIC POETRY

Classes of Dramatic Poetry.—The Beginnings of the Drama in Eng-

land.— The Miracle and Mystery Plays.—The Moralities.—The In-

terludes.—The First Real Comedy.—The Rise of Tragedy.—The Lead

Taken by the Popular Drama Over the Classical.- What Shakespeare

Owed to others.—Suggestions to Students. Some Great Scenes from

Marlowe's Plays: From “Doctor Faustus” (a part of Scene V and

Seene XVI); from “Edward the Second” (Act V, Scene I).-“Shake-

speare the Player" (MacKaye).-References for Outside Study of

Shakespeare's Lifc.—Some of the Chief Characteristics of the Older

Drama.—The Classes of Plays landled by Shakespeare.—Reviev.-

“Hamlet”: Notes, Questions and Comments.—The Drama from

Shakespeare to the Nineteenth century --Outside Readings on the

Earlier Drama.-Suggestions to Students.—Review:— The Mask as a

Dramatic Form.-Milton's "Comus”: Notes, Questions and Com-

ments.—"Caliban by the Yellow Sands," a Modern Mask — The Dra-

matie Monologue.- Browning's "My Last Duchess.”—The Beginning

of the Modern Drama.-Some Characteristics and Tendencies of the

Moderno Drama.--Some Ways in which the Modern Drama Differs

from the Older Drama.–Gibson's "The Family's Pride."-Wilde's

"The Traitor."-Optional Readings in the Modern Drama.-Re-

view of Poetry.

BOOK TWO

TYPES OF PROSE

CHAPTER I. THE ESSAY

335

Characteristics of the Essay.- The Great Essayists.-Suggestions to

Students --Some Examples of Essays: Francis Bacon's "Of Re.

venge"; "Of Riches”; “Of Studies”; “Of Great Place”; “Of Friend-

ship"-Addison's “Reflections in Westminster Abbey.”—Lamb's

“Dream Children.”—Ruskin's Part III of “Queens' Gardens.”—

Stevenson's “On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places.”—A Letter

from "The Upton Letters” by Benson.—Essays for Optional Reading
-Review.

CHAPTER II. PROSE FICTION

373

Classes of Prose Fiction.—The Prose Allegory.—The Prose Romance.

-The Tale of Adventure and Experience. — The Beginning of the

Modern Novel.-Richardson.-Fielding: -Other Novelists of the

Eighteenth Century.- Novelists of the Early Nineteenth Century-

Scott.-Jane Austen.-Later Nineteenth Century Novelists —Novel-

ists of the Twentieth Century:-Some Characteristics of the Modern

Novel.—The Study of a Novel.-Notes, Comments and Questions on

"A Tale of Two Cities.”—The Novelette.-Suggestions to Students.---

Some Good Novels for General Reading.–The Short-Story.-Its

Characteristics.—The Standardization of the Short Story.—The

Great Writers of the Short-Story.-Hawthorne's “The Birthmark.”

- Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum."- Poe's “Masque of the Red

Death”-“Markheim.”—Maupassant's “The Piece of String."-
() Henry's "A Chaparral Christmas Gift.”—Some Short Stories for
Optional Readings.—Review of Prose Fiction.

465

CHAPTER III. TIE ORATION

Changing Ideals Regarding Public Speaking.-Characteristics of

Modern Oratory. -Occasions for Speeches.--Great Public Speakers.-

Some Examples of the Modern Speech.—Abraham Lincoln's Second

Inaugural Address.—Theodore Roosevelt's "Our National Responsi.

bilities.”—IP oodrow Wilson's War Message.—David Lloyd George's

“America's Entrance into the War.”—Thomas R. Marshall's Speech

Introducing Baron Moucheur, the Belgian Commissioner.—Some

Speeches for Optional Reading.--Discussion of Miscellaneous Prose.

-An Example of Miscellaneous Prose.—Extract from the Pastoral

Letter of Cardinal Mercier, December 25, 1914.

SOME EXAMPLES OF MISCELLANEOUS PROSE.

488

Sove FAMOUS CHARACTERS FROM LITERATURE

490

493

SOME WELL KNOWN TITLES OF PIECES OF LITERATURE

SUGGESTED MINIMUM REFERENCE LIBRARY LIST .

495

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

8

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William Shakespeare .

Frontispiece Facsimile of the first page of “Beowulf”. Death of Beowulf .

13 Milton Dictating "Paradise Lost"

16 The Vigil

22 Edmund Spenser

28 Chaucer, England's Greatest Writer of Metrical Tales .

50 The Canterbury Pilgrims

52 Alfred Tennyson .

107 Robert Louis Stevenson .

138 Some of the Principal Poets of America .

146 Interior of the Fortune Theater, London, built in 1599 .

157 Shakespeare's Grave in Stratford Church Chancel

281 John Drew as Shakespeare

312 Robert Browning · ·

315 Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey .

351 Charles Dickens

380 Edgar Allan Poe

423 President Wilson and Cardinal Mercier Chart showing Types according to Chronological Literary Periods 496

487

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