Merle Johnson (1874–1935)

4700. You Know These Lines! A Bibliography of the Most Quoted Verses in American Poetry, by Merle Johnson (read 24 Apr 2010) This 1935 book lists 100 poems and quotes famous parts from them. It also minutely describes the books in which these poems first appeared--valuable information for book collectors but of no interest to me. I don't know if in 1935 people would all know the verses he cites, but there were some I did not know. But there were many I did know, and quite a few were to poems I memorized, namely: Annabel Lee; Antony and Cleopatra; Ballad of the Tempest; Barbara Frietchie; The Chambered Nautilus; Concord Hymn; Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight; I Have a Rendezvous With Death. Little Boy Blue; O Captain! My Captain!; Old Ironsides; A Psalm of Life; The Raven; Rock Me to Sleep; Sheridan's Ride; Somebody's Mother; To a Waterfowl; Trees; and The Village Blacksmith;. The book does not have these poems in full--only famed lines therefrom. But I think the full poems can be found online. Some of the poems did not appeal to me at all, such as James Whitcomb Riley's dialect poems, which I think are best forgotten, as is also true of some of Lowell's poems. This is a great book for all interested in famed American poetry.… (more)