Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century In addressing himself to his subject-matter, the first prominent difficulty was the disposal of materials so comprehensive into such sections as might enable him to bring the whole, as it were, in a bird's-eye view, within the prescribed limits thus giving at least something like a due share of consideration to each. The comparative import ance of the long line of celebrated men who were to be submitted to critical remark, was the next source of perplexity; nor was the delicacy or difficulty of this task lessened from the circum stance of the Author having been honoured by the friendship of several of the illustrious departed, as well as of not a few of the illustrious living, whose works were necessarily to form the main themes of comment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.