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Description:  The Oxford Book of English Verse in its entirety is a choice collection of over 800 poems spanning the period from 1250-1900, selected and edited by the eminent British literary figure, Arthur Quiller-Couch. This third part roughly covers the period from 1650 to 1800 and as such guides the reader through the poetic work of one of the more tumultuous eras in English history.
John Milton with 18 poems included opens the volume and Robert Burns with 14 selections closes it. In between we have 67 other poets represented. Richard Crashaw (7), Richard Lovelace (5), Andrew Marvell (6), and John Dryden (5), along with John Milton, are the poets most prominently featured from the seventeenth century, while Matthew Prior (5) and William Blake (12) join Robert Burns as those representing the eighteenth century to the greatest extent.
Quiller-Couch gathered most of the Ballads (26) into the middle of the seventeenth century, where, he says, "they fill a languid interval between two winds of inspiration-the Italian dying down with Milton and the French following at the heels of the restored Royalists."
Having set his heart on choosing the best, the compiler consulted existing anthologies, but only after making his own choice. As he says, "The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so."

Additional information:

1. Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity
2. On Time
3. At a Solemn Musick
4. L'Allegro
5. Il Penseroso
6. From Arcades
7. From Comus: First Selection
8. From Comus: Second Selection
9. From Comus: Third Selection
10. From Comus: Fourth Selection
11. Lycidas
12. To the Lady Margaret Ley
13. On His Blindness
14. To Mr. Lawrence
15. To Cyriack Skinner
16. On His Deceased Wife
17. Light
18. From Samson Agonistes: First Selection
19. From Samson Agonistes: Second Selection
20. A Doubt of Martyrdom
21. The Constant Lover
22. Why So Pale and Wan?
23. When, Dearest, I But Think of Thee
24. A Rose
25. To Chloe
26. Falsehood
27. On the Queen's Return from the Low Countries
28. On a Virtuous Young Gentlewoman That Died Suddenly
29. I'll Never Love Thee More
30. Coronemus Nos Rosis Antequam Marcescant
31. Wishes to His Supposed Mistress
32. The Weeper
33. A Hymn to the Name and Honour of Saint Teresa
34. Upon the Book and Picture of Saint Teresa
35. Verses from the Shepherds' Hymn
36. Christ Crucified
37. An Epitaph Upon Husband and Wife
38. To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
39. To Lucasta, Going Beyond the Seas
40. Gratiana Dancing
41. To Amarantha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair
42. The Grasshopper
43. To Althea, From Prison
44. Anacreontics I: Drinking
45. Anacreontics II: The Epicure
46. Anacreontics III: The Swallow
47. On the Death of Mr. William Hervey
48. The Wish
49. The Resolve
50. An Horatian Ode
51. A Garden
52. To His Coy Mistress
53. The Picture of Little T. C.
54. Thoughts in a Garden
55. Bermudas
56. An Epitaph
57. The Retreat
58. Peace
59. The Timber
60. Friends Departed
61. The Shepherd Boy Sings
62. Thomas the Rhymer
63. Sir Patrick Spens
64. The Lass of Lochroyan
65. The Dowie Houms of Yarrow
66. Clerk Saunders
67. Fair Annie
68. Edward, Edward
69. Edom o' Gordon
70. The Queen's Marie
71. Binnorie
72. The Bonnie House o' Airlie
73. The Wife of Usher's Well
74. The Three Ravens

75. The Twa Corbies
76. A Lyke-Wake Dirge
77. The Seven Virgins
78. Two Rivers
79. Cradle Song
80. The Call
81. The Bonny Earl of Murray
82. Helen of Kirconnell
83. Waly, Waly
84. Barbara Allen's Cruelty
85. Pipe and Can
86. Love Will Find Out the Way
87. Phillada Flouts Me
88. Chloris in the Snow
89. The Relapse
90. Chloe Divine
91. To Coelia
92. To One Persuading a Lady to Marriage
93. Ode
94. A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687
95. Ah, How Sweet It Is to Love!
96. Hidden Flame
97. Song to a Fair Young Lady, Going Out of the Town
98. Against Indifference
99. Song
100. To a Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her

101. News

102. The Sad Day
103. Song
104. To Chloris
105. To Celia
106. Song
107. The Libertine
108. Return
109. Love and Life
110. Constancy
111. To His Mistress
112. The Reconcilement
113. On One Who Died Discovering Her Kindness
114. The Enchantment
115. A Quiet Soul
116. Song
117. The Question to Lisetta
118. To a Child of Quality
119. Song
120. On My Birthday, July 21
121. The Lady Who Offers Her Looking-Glass to Venus
122. A Letter
123. For My Own Monument
124. Rivals
125. Werena My Heart's Licht I Wad Dee
126. False Though She Be
127. A Hue and Cry After Fair Amoret
128. Hymn
129. The Day of Judgement
130. A Cradle Hymn
131. Song
132. Peggy
133. On a Fly Drinking Out of His Cup
134. Song
135. On a Certain Lady at Court
136. Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
137. The Dying Christian to his Soul
138. Shorten Sail
139. Sally in our Alley
140. A Drinking Song
141. The Rosebud
142. Belinda's Recovery from Sickness
143. On the Death of a Particular Friend
144. Tell Me, My Heart, If This Be Love
145. One-and-Twenty
146. On the Death of Mr. Robert Levet
147. Absence

148. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

149. The Curse Upon Edward

150. The Progress of Poesy

151. On a Favourite Cat, Drowned

152. Ode to Simplicity

153. How Sleep the Brave

154. Ode to Evening

155. Fidele

156. Amoret

157. The Complaint

158. The Nightingale

159. To Leven Water

160. Song to David

161. A Lament for Flodden

162. Woman

163. Memory

164. If Doughty Deeds

165. To Mary Unwin

166. My Mary

167. An Epitaph

168. Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes

169. Life

170. Prayer for Indifference

171. To the Cuckoo

172. Auld Robin Gray

173. Epigram

174. Song from Aella

175. Meeting

176. Late Wisdom

177. A Marriage Ring

178. To the Muses

179. To Spring

180. Song

181. Reeds of Innocence

182. The Little Black Boy

183. Hear the Voice

184. The Tiger

185. Cradle Song

186. Night

187. Love's Secret

188. Mary Morison

189. Jean

190. Auld Lang Syne

191. My Bonnie Mary

192. John Anderson, My Jo

193. The Banks o' Doon

194. Ae Fond Kiss

195. Bonnie Lesley

196. Highland Mary

197. O Were My Love Yon Lilac Fair

198. A Red, Red Rose

199. Lament for Culloden

200. The Farewell

201. Hark! The Mavis

Poems Every Child Should Know

by Mary E. Burt

The Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 1

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

The Age of Fable

by Thomas Bulfinch

Undine

by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué