Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations

Book excerpt: It has been the aim of the compiler of this little book to present a Dictionary of Poetical Quotations which will be a ready reference to many of the most familiar stanzas and lines of the chief poets of the English language, with a few selections from Continental writers; and also some less familiar selections from more modern poets, which may in time become classic, or which at least have a contemporary interest. Readers of English literature are aware that the few great poets of our language have struck perhaps every chord of human sentiment capable of illustration in verse, and even these few have borrowed the ideas, and sometimes almost the exact words, of predecessors or contemporaries.