| Joseph Addison.
1672–1719. |
Critical Introduction by William John Courthope |
| Extract from The Letter from Italy: The Blessings of Liberty |
| Extract from The Campaign: Marlborough at Blenheim |
| William Walsh.
1663–1708. |
Critical Introduction by Edmund W. Gosse |
| To His Book |
| Sonnet: ‘What has this bugbear death that ’s worth our care?’ |
| The Despairing Lover |
| William Congreve.
1670–1729. |
Critical Introduction by Henry Austin Dobson |
| Amoret |
| Song: ‘False though she be to me and love’ |
| Sir Samuel Garth.
1661–1719. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Extracts from The Dispensary |
| Matthew Prior.
1664–1721. |
Critical Introduction by Henry Austin Dobson |
| The Secretary |
| To a Child of Quality, Five Years Old |
| A Song: ‘In vain you tell your parting lover’ |
| To a Lady |
| An Ode: ‘The merchant, to secure his treasure’ |
| Cupid Mistaken |
| A Better Answer |
| A Simile |
| Epigram: ‘To John I owed great obligation’ |
| Another: ‘Yes, every poet is a fool’ |
| For My Own Tomb-stone |
| Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea.
1661–1720. |
Critical Introduction by Edmund W. Gosse |
| To the Nightingale |
| The Tree |
| A Nocturnal Reverie |
| Extract from An Ode to the Spleen |
| In Answer to Mr. Pope |
| Jonathan Swift.
1667–1745. |
Critical Introduction by John Nichol |
| A Description of the Morning |
| Horace, Book IV, Ode IX |
| Apollo’s Edict |
| Extract from Cadenus and Vanessa |
| The Beasts’ Confession |
| The Day of Judgment |
| Extracts from Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift |
| Alexander Pope.
1688–1744. |
Critical Introduction by Mark Pattison |
| Extract from The Essay on Criticism |
| The Rape of the Lock, Canto II |
| Canto III |
| Extract from The Iliad, Book VIII |
| Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady |
| Extracts from the Essay on Man: Book I |
| Book IV |
| Extract from Moral Essays, Epistle I |
| Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot |
| From the First Epistle of the Second Book of Horace Imitated |
| Extract from the Epilogue to the Satires |
| Extract from the Dunciad, Book IV |
| Conclusion of the Dunciad |
| Ambrose Philips.
1674–1749. |
Critical Introduction by Edmund W. Gosse |
| Extract from the Ode to Miss Carteret |
| To Miss Charlotte Pulteney, in Her Mother’s Arms |
| Thomas Parnell.
1679–1718. |
Critical Introduction by Edmund W. Gosse |
| Extract from A Night-Piece on Death |
| Extract from A Hymn to Contentment |
| The Hermit |
| John Gay.
1685–1732. |
Critical Introduction by Henry Austin Dobson |
| Extract from The Shepherd’s Week |
| A Ballad from The What d’ye Call It |
| The Hare with Many Friends |
| Black-eyed Susan |
| Thomas Tickell.
1686–1740. |
Critical Introduction by Edmund W. Gosse |
| To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison |
| Allan Ramsay.
1686–1758. |
Critical Introduction by William Minto |
| Extracts from The Gentle Shepherd: Jenny and Peggy |
| Patie and Peggy |
| Extracts from The Tea-Table Miscellany: Through the Wood, Laddie |
| An Thou Were My Ain Thing |
| James Thomson.
1700–1748. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Extracts from The Seasons: A Snow Scene, from ‘Winter’ |
| The Sheep-washing, from ‘Summer’ |
| The Coming of the Rain, from ‘Spring’ |
| Storm in Harvest, from ‘Autumn’ |
| To Her I Love |
| Extracts from the Castle of Indolence. Book I |
| John Armstrong.
1709–1779. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Extract from The Art of Preserving Health, Book III |
| Book IV |
| Extract from Taste, an Epistle to a Young Critic |
| William Somerville.
1675–1742. |
Critical Introduction by Edmund W. Gosse |
| Extract from The Chase, Book I |
| Book II |
| Matthew Green.
1696–1737. |
Critical Introduction by Henry Austin Dobson |
| Extracts from The Spleen |
| On Barclay’s Apology for the Quakers |
| John Dyer.
1700?–1758. |
Critical Introduction by Edward Dowden |
| Grongar Hill |
| Extracts from The Fleece, Book I |
| Robert Blair.
1699–1746. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Extracts from The Grave: Self-Murder |
| Omnes eodem cogimur |
| The Resurrection |
| Edward Young.
1681–1765. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Extract from The Last Day, Book I |
| The Old Coquette (from Satire V, on Women) |
| Extracts from Night Thoughts: Procrastination, from The Complaint, Night I |
| The Death of Friends, from Night III |
| Aspiration, from Night IV |
| The Stream of Life, from Night V |
| John Byrom.
1692–1763. |
Critical Introduction by William Ernest Henley |
| The Nimmers |
| Careless Content |
| On the Origin of Evil |
| Epigrams |
| Richard Glover.
1712–1785. |
Critical Introduction by Thomas Arnold |
| Polydorus and Maron (from Leonidas, Book IX) |
| Ballad of Admiral Hosier’s Ghost |
| Samuel Johnson.
1709–1784. |
Critical Introduction by William John Courthope |
| Thales’ Reasons for Leaving London (from London) |
| Extracts from The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Rise and Fall of Wolsey |
| The True Objects of Desire |
| Prologue Spoken at the Opening of the Drury Lane Theatre, 1747 |
| Prologue to the Comedy of A Word to the Wise |
| John and Charles Wesley. |
Critical Introduction by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley |
| Charles Wesley.
1707–1788. |
Christmas Hymn |
| Easter Hymn |
| Christ, the Refuge of the Soul |
| Christ Our Example |
| Wrestling Jacob |
| Catholic Love |
| John Wesley.
1703–1791. |
An Hymn for Seriousness |
| William Shenstone.
1714–1763. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Suffering and Sympathy (from The Schoolmistress) |
| Pastoral Ballad |
| The Dying Kid |
| Much Taste and Small Estate (from The Progress of Taste) |
| William Collins.
1721–1759. |
Critical Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne |
| Ode to Liberty |
| Ode: ‘How sleep the brave, who sink to rest’ |
| Ode to Evening |
| The Passions |
| Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson |
| An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland |
| Dirge in Cymbeline |
| Thomas Gray.
1716–1771. |
Critical Introduction by Matthew Arnold |
| Ode on the Spring |
| Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College |
| Hymn to Adversity |
| The Progress of Poesy |
| The Bard |
| Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard |
| Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West |
| Sketch of His Own Character |
| Impromptu on Lord Holland’s Seat at Kingsgate |
| William Whitehead.
1715–1785. |
Critical Introduction by Thomas Humphry Ward |
| The Enthusiast. An Ode |
| Mark Akenside.
1721–1770. |
Critical Introduction by Edward Dowden |
| Extract from The Pleasures of Imagination |
| On the Winter Solstice, 1740 |
| For a Grotto |
| Christopher Smart.
1722–1771. |
Critical Introduction by Thomas Humphry Ward |
| Extracts from A Song to David |
| William Falconer.
1732–1769. |
Critical Introduction by Edward Dowden |
| Extract from The Shipwreck, Canto III |
| Oliver Goldsmith.
1730–1774. |
Critical Introduction by Edward Dowden |
| Extract from The Deserted Village |
| Extract from Retaliation |
| Stanzas on Woman |
| Thomas Warton.
1728–1790. |
Critical Introduction by Thomas Humphry Ward |
| Extract from The Triumph of Isis |
| Extract from The First of April |
| Sonnet Written in a Blank Leaf of Dugdale’s ‘Monasticon’ |
| To the River Lodon |
| Charles Churchill.
1731–1764. |
Critical Introduction by E. J. Payne |
| Description of His Muse (from The Prophecy of Famine) |
| Characters of Actors (from The Rosciad) |
| Description of Johnson (from The Ghost) |
| Charles the First (from Gotham) |
| James Beattie.
1735–1803. |
Critical Introduction by George Saintsbury |
| Extract from The Minstrel, Book I |
| Thomas Chatterton.
1752–1770. |
Critical Introduction by Theodore Watts-Dunton |
| An Excellent Ballad of Charity |
| Eclogue the First |
| Eclogue the Third |
| Minstrel’s Marriage-Song (from Œlla: a Tragical Interlude) |
| The Accounte of W. Canynge’s Feast |
| Minstrel’s Roundelay (from Œlla) |
| William Cowper.
1731–1800. |
Critical Introduction by Thomas Humphry Ward |
| The Past and Future of Poetry (from Table Talk) |
| Grace and the World (from Hope) |
| Extracts from Conversation: Characters and Sketches |
| An Afternoon Call |
| Extracts from Retirement: Dejection and Retirement. The Retired Statesman |
| What to Read |
| A Comparison |
| The Jackdaw |
| Boadicea. An Ode |
| Extracts from the Task: Relish of Fair Prospect |
| Crazy Kate. The Gipsies |
| England |
| Autobiographical |
| The Post. The Fireside in Winter |
| Snow |
| Early Love of the Country and of Poetry |
| Meditation in Winter |
| The Poet in the Woods |
| An Epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. |
| To the Rev. Mr. Newton |
| On the Loss of the Royal George |
| Epitaph on a Hare |
| On the Death of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bullfinch |
| The Acquiescence of Pure Love |
| On the Receipt of My Mother’s Picture |
| The Poplar Field |
| To Mary |
| The Castaway |
| Scotch Song-writers. |
Critical Introduction by William Minto |
| John Skinner.
1721–1807. |
Tullochgorum |
| George Halket.
d. 1756. |
Logie o’ Buchan |
| Alexander Geddes.
1737–1802. |
Lewie Gordon |
| Jean Adam.
1704–1765. |
There ’s Nae Luck about the House |
| Isabel Pagan.
c. 1740–1821. |
Ca’ the Yowes |
| Jane Elliott.
1727–1805. |
The Flowers of the Forest |
| John Mayne.
1759–1836. |
Logan Braes |
| Adam Austin.
1726?–1774. |
For Lack of Gold |
| Adam Skirving.
1719–1803. |
Johnnie Cope |
| Robert Fergusson.
1750–1774. |
Critical Introduction by John Service |
| The Daft Days |
| Braid Claith |
| Extract from Caller Water |
| Ode to the Gowdspink |
| Robert Burns.
1759–1796. |
Critical Introduction by John Service |
| Mary Morison |
| My Nanie, O |
| Green Grow the Rashes. A Fragment |
| The Death and Dying Words of Poor Mailie, the Author’s Only Pet Yowe |
| Extract from An Epistle to John Lapraik, an Old Scottish Bard |
| To a Mouse, on Turning Her up in Her Nest, with the Plough |
| The Cotter’s Saturday Night |
| Address to the Deil |
| Extract from The Holy Fair |
| Epistle to a Young Friend |
| A Bard’s Epitaph |
| Extract from The Epistle to Mrs. Scott of Wauchope |
| The Birks of Aberfeldy |
| Of a’ the Airts the Wind Can Blaw |
| Auld Lang Syne |
| John Anderson, My Jo |
| Tam Glen |
| The Happy Trio |
| To Mary in Heaven |
| Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale |
| The Banks o’ Doon |
| Farewell to Nancy |
| Highland Mary |
| Duncan Gray |
| Whistle, and I ’ll Come to Ye, My Lad |
| Bannockburn. Robert Bruce’s Address to His Army |
| A Red, Red Rose |
| My Nanie ’s awa |
| A Man ’s a Man for a’ That |
| Address to the Woodlark |
| This Is No My Ain Lassie |
| Last May a Braw Wooer |
| O Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast |
| Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne.
1766–1845. |
Critical Introduction by William Minto |
| Wha ’ll Be King but Charlie? |
| The Land o’ the Leal |
| Anna Letitia Barbauld.
1743–1825. |
Critical Introduction by Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (Robinson-Darmesteter) |
| Ode to Spring |
| Life |
| George Crabbe.
1754–1832. |
Critical Introduction by William John Courthope |
| The Village As It Is (from The Village) |
| Extracts from The Borough: The Convict’s Dream |
| Strolling Players |
| The Founder of the Almshouse |
| A Storm on the East Coast |
| An Entanglement (from Tales of the Hall) |
| William Blake.
1757–1827. |
Critical Introduction by J. Comyns Carr |
| Extracts from Poetical Sketches: To the Evening Star |
| Song: ‘How sweet I roamed from field to field’ |
| Song: ‘My silks and fine array’ |
| Song: ‘Memory, hither come’ |
| Mad Song |
| To the Muses |
| Extracts from Songs of Innocence: Introduction |
| The Lamb |
| Night |
| Extracts from Songs of Experience: Ah, Sunflower |
| The Tiger |
| The Angel |
