PREFACE.
VARIOUS circumstances have occurred to delay the publication of this volume. It was originally intended to be an anthology from the writings of women-poets between 1685 and 1885; but I do not regret the delay in its appearance, for I have thereby been enabled to include no inconsiderable amount of fine poetic work which has appeared during the last two and a-half years.
It is a somewhat hackneyed remark, that if some of the poetry of our younger writers had appeared a century ago, the authors would have achieved a fame, or at any rate a reputation, beyond all comparison with the scanty meed of acknowledgment which is their present reward. It is, however, not generally recognised how much of verse of high intellectual and artistic quality has been written by women during the last two centuries. One or two names have a high place on the roll of fame; others are rewarded with honourable if somewhat patronising mention and approval; and many whose productions are of a quality exceptionally noteworthy are totally forgotten, or—as in the case of living authors—strangely, and one is
