The Golden Treasury (1861)

My own copy is a well worn red hardcover published in the 1940's, bearing my first scribbles over the drawings. It is the first book I remember in my life, hence the nostalgic 5 star rating. I drew in it as a toddler and haltingly made out words as I learned them (I was a freakishly early reader, words seemed my natural place on this earth and gave me great solace. It was therefore a shock to find myself in postwar Japan at age 6, unable to even understand what the symbols..apparently letters...were).
As a 10 year old I memorized most of my favorites, and as a 13 year old treated my mirror to dramatic recitations of the longer, more poignant poems. And I made the book an oracle of love, choosing poems by random number to determine if the freckled face kid who was still shorter than I returned my great passion. Since lots of the poems have to do with love, well, sure he did.

It was good training for a poet, if peculiar, and I'd gladly place Palgrave in the library of any home with curious, quirky, poets to be growing up in it. ( )

Probably my 'desert island' book. ( )

Very Good condition

This is a superb anthology. Palgrave's selection is fantastic; this volume contains several of my favorite poems and many great ones that I'd not encountered before reading this book. The arrangement is also wonderful, and allowed this to become the only anthology of poetry that I have actually sat and read cover-to-cover in the designated order.

My copy has additional poems through the 1920's. Unfortunately, the editors of this section are not nearly as discriminating as is Palgrave, and I'd hardly consider this section to contain only the "best" of the period, or even to offer a good representation of the best works. ( )

Quite an amazing collection of poets included here. Shakespeare, Byron, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Whitman, Shelley, Keats, Campbell, Sir Walter Scott, Elizabeth Barrett Browning - the list goes on and on. The dedication to the original is to Lord Alfred Tennyson, who was poet laureate at the date of the original publication. ( )