Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Volume II. Love
| Introductory Essay | ||
| The Future of Poetry by John Vance Cheney (1848–1922) | ||
| I. Admiration | ||
| “When in the chronicle of wasted time” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Daybreak by Sir William Davenant (1606–1668) | ||
| “Shall I compare thee?” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| The Portrait by Thomas Heywood (c. 1570–1641) | ||
| “Give place, ye lovers” by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547) | ||
| To His Mistress by Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639) | ||
| “The forward violet thus did I chide” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| “There is a garden in her face”—Anonymous | ||
| Olivia by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Portia’s Picture by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Song: “The shape alone let others prize” by Mark Akenside (1721–1770) | ||
| Triumph of Charis by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) | ||
| Belinda by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) | ||
| Hero’s Beauty by Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) | ||
| “Drink to me only with thine eyes” by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) | ||
| “Eros is missing” by Meleager of Gadara (1st Century B.C.) | ||
| A Violet in her Hair by Charles Swain (1801–1874) | ||
| To Dianeme by Robert Herrick (1591–1674) | ||
| Rosalynd by Thomas Lodge (1558–1625) | ||
| Disdain Returned by Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?) | ||
| To a Lady admiring Herself in a Looking-Glass by Thomas Randolph (1605–1635) | ||
| “Phillis is my only joy” by Sir Charles Sedley (1639–1701) | ||
| Constancy by Sir John Suckling (1609–1642) | ||
| A Vision of Beauty by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) | ||
| To the Princess Lucretia by Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) | ||
| My Lady by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) | ||
| Vision of a Fair Woman by From the Ancient Erse | ||
| Spring by Meleager of Gadara (1st Century B.C.) | ||
| Song by Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–c. 1230) | ||
| The Girl of Cadiz by Lord Byron (1788–1824) | ||
| “I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) | ||
| A Budget of Paradoxes by John Martley (1844–1882) | ||
| Love Dissembled by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Her Likeness by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887) | ||
| “She walks in beauty” by Lord Byron (1788–1824) | ||
| “She is not fair to outward view” by Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) | ||
| Verses written in an Album by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| To Roses in the Bosom of Castara by William Habington (1605–1654) | ||
| To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) | ||
| On a Girdle by Edmund Waller (1606–1687) | ||
| The White Rose—Anonymous | ||
| Song: “Ask me no more where Jove bestows” by Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?) | ||
| “Go, lovely rose” by Edmund Waller (1606–1687) | ||
| “Whenas in silks my Julia goes” by Robert Herrick (1591–1674) | ||
| “O, do not wanton with those eyes” by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) | ||
| Black and Blue Eyes by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| Blue Eyes by John Keats (1795–1821) | ||
| “O, saw ye the lass?” by Richard Ryan (1796–1849) | ||
| A Health by Edward Coate Pinkney (1802–1828) | ||
| My Sweetheart’s Face by John Allan Wyeth (1845–1922) | ||
| Her Guitar by Frank Dempster Sherman (1860–1916) | ||
| On Some Buttercups by Frank Dempster Sherman (1860–1916) | ||
| “O, fairest of rural maids!” by William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) | ||
| To a Lady by John James Piatt (1835–1917) | ||
| On the Road to Chorrera by Arlo Bates (1850–1918) | ||
| The Milking-Maid by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894) | ||
| Lovely Mary Donnelly by William Allingham (1824–1889) | ||
| The Irish Spinning-Wheel by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931) | ||
| The Low-Backed Car by Samuel Lover (1797–1868) | ||
| A Gage D’Amour by Austin Dobson (1840–1921) | ||
| An Experience and a Moral by Frederick Swartwout Cozzens (1818–1869) | ||
| At the Church-Gate by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) | ||
| II. Love’s Nature | ||
| Love by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| “Love is a sickness” by Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) | ||
| The Shepherd and the King by Robert Greene (1558–1592) | ||
| Love by Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) | ||
| Love and Woman by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| “Ah, how sweet” by John Dryden (1631–1700) | ||
| “Welcome, welcome, do I sing” by William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645) | ||
| Love by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) | ||
| Song: “Love still has something” by Sir Charles Sedley (1639–1701) | ||
| “If it be true that any beauteous thing” by Michaelangelo (1475–1564) | ||
| Sonnet: “Muses, that sing Love’s sensual empirie” by George Chapman (1559?–1634) | ||
| Love’s Silence by Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) | ||
| When Will Love Come? by Pakenham Beatty (1855–1930) | ||
| Why? by Mary Louise Ritter | ||
| The Annoyer by Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) | ||
| Three Loves by Lucy Hamilton Jones Hooper (1835–1893) | ||
| “Love scorns degrees” by Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) | ||
| “Love not me for comely grace”—Anonymous | ||
| Light by Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) | ||
| “O mistress mine” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Philomela’s Ode by Robert Greene (1558–1592) | ||
| A Fiction—Anonymous | ||
| Wishes for the Supposed Mistress by Richard Crashaw (c. 1613–1649) | ||
| A Match by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) | ||
| My Choice by William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645) | ||
| A Maiden’s Ideal of a Husband by Henry Carey (1687?–1743) | ||
| Rosalynd’s Complaint by Thomas Lodge (1558–1625) | ||
| Cupid Swallowed by Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) | ||
| “Greene grow the rashes O” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| Perfume by Sir Edmund William Gosse (1849–1928) | ||
| Life by Lizzie M. Little (d. 1909) | ||
| III. Love’s Beginnings | ||
| Kate Temple’s Song by Sir James Carnegie, Earl of Southesk (1827–1905) | ||
| The First Kiss by Thomas Campbell (1777–1844) | ||
| “Tell me, my heart, if this be love” by George, Lord Lyttelton (1709–1773) | ||
| Athulf and Ethilda by Sir Henry Taylor (1800–1886) | ||
| “Blest as the immortal gods” by Sappho (fl. c. 610–580 B.C.) | ||
| “I dreamt I saw great Venus” by Bion of Smyrna (fl. c. 100 B.C.) | ||
| Francesca Da Rimini by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) | ||
| “Dinna ask me” by John Dunlop (1755–1820) | ||
| “O Swallow, Swallow, flying South” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| Song: “It is the miller’s daughter” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| “If doughty deeds my lady please” by Robert Graham of Gartmore (1735–1797) | ||
| The Kiss by Robert Herrick (1591–1674) | ||
| An Opal by Ednah Proctor Clarke Hayes | ||
| Cupid and Campaspe by John Lyly (1555?–1606) | ||
| Kisses by William Strode (1602–1645) | ||
| Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) | ||
| Kissing ’s no Sin—Anonymous | ||
| Song of the Milkmaid by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| “Comin’ through the rye” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| “O whistle, and I’ll come to you, my lad” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| Sonnet upon a Stolen Kiss by George Wither (1588–1667) | ||
| Caprice by William Dean Howells (1837–1920) | ||
| Sly Thoughts by Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) | ||
| The Whistle by Robert Story (1795–1860) | ||
| “Behave yoursel’ before folk” by Alexander Rodger (1784–1846) | ||
| “Smile and never heed me” by Charles Swain (1801–1874) | ||
| “The dule ’s i’ this bonnet o’ mine” by Edwin Waugh (1817–1890) | ||
| A Spinster’s Stint by Alice Cary (1820–1871) | ||
| The Telltale by Elizabeth Akers Allen (1832–1911) | ||
| Love in the Valley by George Meredith (1828–1909) | ||
| Thoughts on the Commandments by George Augustus Baker (1849–1906) | ||
| The Love-Knot by Nora Perry (1831–1896) | ||
| The Chess-Board by E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) | ||
| Her Letter by Bret Harte (1836–1902) | ||
| The Plaidie by Charles Sibley | ||
| Kitty of Coleraine by Charles Dawson Shanly (1811–1875) | ||
| Kitty Neil by John Francis Waller (1810–1894) | ||
| The Little Milliner by Robert Buchanan (1841–1901) | ||
| Atalanta’s Race by William Morris (1834–1896) | ||
| IV. Wooing and Winning | ||
| The Passionate Shepherd to his Love by Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) | ||
| The Nymph’s Reply by Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618) | ||
| Golden Eyes by Rufinus | ||
| Phillida and Corydon by Nicholas Breton (1545–1626) | ||
| The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington—Anonymous | ||
| “Where are you going, my pretty maid?”—Anonymous | ||
| “My eyes! how I love you” by John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) | ||
| The Brookside by Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885) | ||
| The Little Red Lark by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931) | ||
| Love by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) | ||
| Somebody—Anonymous | ||
| The Exchange by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) | ||
| Love’s Logic—Anonymous | ||
| The Night-Piece by Robert Herrick (1591–1674) | ||
| Sweet Meeting of Desires by Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) | ||
| Story of the Gate by Harrison Robertson (1856–1939) | ||
| Doris: A Pastoral by Arthur Joseph Munby (1828–1910) | ||
| Among the Heather by William Allingham (1824–1889) | ||
| Rory O’More by Samuel Lover (1797–1868) | ||
| Cooking and Courting—Anonymous | ||
| “Ca’ the yowes” by Isabel Pagan (c. 1740–1821) | ||
| The Siller Croun by Susanna Blamire (1747–1794) | ||
| “Duncan Gray cam’ here to woo” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| How to Ask and Have by Samuel Lover (1797–1868) | ||
| Live in my Heart and Pay No Rent by Samuel Lover (1797–1868) | ||
| Widow Machree by Samuel Lover (1797–1868) | ||
| Widow Malone by Charles Lever (1806–1872) | ||
| I’m not Myself at all by Samuel Lover (1797–1868) | ||
| “I prithee send me back my heart” by Sir John Suckling (1609–1642) | ||
| “Love me little, love me long”—Anonymous | ||
| The Courtin’ by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) | ||
| Popping Corn—Anonymous | ||
| The Friar of Orders Gray by Thomas Percy (1729–1811) | ||
| The Hermit by Oliver Goldsmith (1730–1774) | ||
| The Laird o’ Cockpen by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766–1845) | ||
| Othello’s Defence by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| The Earl o’ Quarterdeck by George MacDonald (1824–1905) | ||
| Aux Italiens by E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) | ||
| V. Cautions and Complaints | ||
| “Let not woman e’er complain” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| To Chloe by John Wolcot (Peter Pindar) (1738–1819) | ||
| A Woman’s Answer by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) | ||
| Love’s Blindness by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| “Full many a glorious morning” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| “Alexis, here she stayed” by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) | ||
| Rivalry in Love by William Walsh (1663–1708) | ||
| “My dear and only love” by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose (1612–1650) | ||
| The Faithful Lovers—Anonymous | ||
| The Chronicle by Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) | ||
| Constancy—Anonymous | ||
| The Age of Wisdom by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) | ||
| The Common Doom by James Shirley (1596–1666) | ||
| The Author’s Resolution, in a Sonnet by George Wither (1588–1667) | ||
| Answer to Master Wither’s Song, “Shall I, Wasting in Despair” by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) | ||
| Forever Unconfessed by Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885) | ||
| Advice to a Girl by Thomas Campion (1567–1620) | ||
| Si Jeunesse Savait! by Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833–1908) | ||
| Waiting for the Grapes by William Maginn (1794–1842) | ||
| “Give me more love or more disdain” by Thomas Carew (1595?–1639?) | ||
| Affaire d’Amour by Margaret Deland (1857–1945) | ||
| A Renunciation by Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550–1604) | ||
| “Why so pale and wan?” by Sir John Suckling (1609–1642) | ||
| A Woman’s Question by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) | ||
| VI. Lovers | ||
| “Not at all, or all in all” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| “When do I see thee most?” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) | ||
| Beauty by Edward Hovell-Thurlow, Lord Thurlow (1781–1829) | ||
| Love in the Winds by Richard Hovey (1864–1900) | ||
| Kissing Her Hair by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) | ||
| “My sweet sweeting”—Anonymous | ||
| Lines to an Indian Air by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) | ||
| Serenade by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) | ||
| First Love by Lord Byron (1788–1824) | ||
| Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| “I saw two clouds at morning” by John Gardiner Calkins Brainard (1795–1828) | ||
| My Beautiful Lady by Thomas Woolner (1825–1892) | ||
| My Love by Russell Powell Jacoby (1862–1899) | ||
| A Christmas Scene by Thomas Osborne Davis (1814–1845) | ||
| Bedouin Love-Song by Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) | ||
| Zara’s Ear-Rings by John Gibson Lockhart (1794–1854) | ||
| Hesperia by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) | ||
| “Come into the garden, Maud” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) | ||
| “When your beauty appears” by Thomas Parnell (1679–1718) | ||
| What my Lover Said by Homer Greene (1853–1940) | ||
| Palabras Cariñosas by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) | ||
| Seven times Three by Jean Ingelow (1820–1897) | ||
| When the Kye comes Hame by James Hogg (1770–1835) | ||
| The Milkmaid’s Song by Sydney Dobell (1824–1874) | ||
| Sally in our Alley by Henry Carey (1687?–1743) | ||
| On the Road by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) | ||
| Ganging to and Ganging frae by Eliza Cook (1818–1889) | ||
| The Spinning-Wheel Song by John Francis Waller (1810–1894) | ||
| The Welcome by Thomas Osborne Davis (1814–1845) | ||
| Fetching Water from the Well—Anonymous | ||
| Lady Clare by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| Curfew must Not Ring To-night by Rose Hartwick Thorpe (1850–1939) | ||
| The Sleeping Beauty by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) | ||
| The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats (1795–1821) | ||
| “So sweet love seemed” by Robert Bridges (1844–1930) | ||
| Echoes by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| Love’s Young Dream by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| VII. Love’s Power | ||
| “The might of one fair face” by Michaelangelo (1475–1564) | ||
| “My true-love hath my heart” by Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) | ||
| “Were I as base as is the lowly plain” by Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618) | ||
| “When stars are in the quiet skies” by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) | ||
| “Come, rest in this bosom” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| The Gillyflower of Gold by William Morris (1834–1896) | ||
| The Landlady’s Daughter by Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862) | ||
| “Believe me, if all those endearing young charms” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| “Forget thee?” by John Moultrie (1799–1874) | ||
| Renouncement by Alice Meynell (1847–1922) | ||
| Love: “Such a starved bank of moss” by Robert Browning (1812–1889) | ||
| Last Night by Christian Winther (1796–1876) | ||
| Minstrels’ Marriage Song by Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) | ||
| Summer Days by Wathen Marks Wilks Call (1817–1890) | ||
| “Fly to the desert, fly with me” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) | ||
| In a Gondola by Robert Browning (1812–1889) | ||
| Cleopatra by William Wetmore Story (1819–1895) | ||
| Love by Thomas Kibble Hervey (1804–1859) | ||
| Last Sonnet by John Keats (1795–1821) | ||
| Stanzas by Lord Byron (1788–1824) | ||
| The Song of the Camp by Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) | ||
| To Fidessa by Bartholomew Griffin (d. 1602) | ||
| Meeting at Night by Robert Browning (1812–1889) | ||
| Charlie Machree by William J. Hoppin (1813–1895) | ||
| Hope Deferred—Anonymous | ||
| The Old Maid by George Barlow (1847–1914?) | ||
| The Loveliness of Love by George Darley (1795–1846) | ||
| To One in Paradise by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) | ||
| An Old Sweetheart of Mine by James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) | ||
| Rose Aylmer by Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) | ||
| VIII. Wedded Love | ||
| “Let me not to the marriage of true minds” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) | ||
| VI. Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand | ||
| XIV. If thou must love me, let it be for naught | ||
| XVIII. I never gave a lock of hair away | ||
| XXI. Say over again, and yet once over again | ||
| XXVIII. My letters! all dead paper,… mute and white! | ||
| XXXV. If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange | ||
| XXXVIII. First time he kissed me, he but only kissed | ||
| XXXIX. Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace | ||
| XLIII. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways | ||
| Sonnets by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) | ||
| I. “My Love, I have no fear that thou shouldst die” | ||
| II. “Our love is not a fading, earthly flower” | ||
| III. “I thought our love at full, but I did err” | ||
| My Love by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) | ||
| Adam Describing Eve by John Milton (1608–1674) | ||
| Adam to Eve by John Milton (1608–1674) | ||
| Brutus and Portia by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) | ||
| Lord Walter’s Wife by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) | ||
| Paulina’s Appeal by Pierre Corneille (1606–1684) | ||
| The Wife of Loki by Lady Charlotte Elliot (d. 1899) | ||
| “Like a laverock in the lift” by Jean Ingelow (1820–1897) | ||
| “Were I but his own wife” by Ellen Mary Downing (1828–1869) | ||
| Two Lovers by George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross) (1819–1880) | ||
| In Twos by William Channing Gannett (1840–1923) | ||
| Hebrew Wedding by Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868) | ||
| The Wedding-Day by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) | ||
| The Bride by Sir John Suckling (1609–1642) | ||
| Song: “The bride she is winsome and bonny” by Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) | ||
| The Newly-Wedded by Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802–1839) | ||
| The Poet’s Bridal-Day Song by Allan Cunningham (1784–1842) | ||
| “Thou hast sworn by thy God, my Jeanie” by Allan Cunningham (1784–1842) | ||
| Possession by Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) | ||
| My Ain Wife by Alexander Laing (1787–1857) | ||
| My Wife ’s a Winsome Wee Thing by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| The Poet’s Song to His Wife by Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) (1787–1874) | ||
| “The day returns, my bosom burns” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||
| “She was a phantom of delight” by William Wordsworth (1770–1850) | ||
| Possession by E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) | ||
| My Heart is a Lute by Lady Blanche Elizabeth Fitzroy Lindsay (1844–1912) | ||
| Reunited Love by Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825–1900) | ||
| A Woman’s Complaint—Anonymous | ||
| Love Lightens Labor—Anonymous | ||
| Connubial Life by James Thomson (1700–1748) | ||
| The Retort by George Pope Morris (1802–1864) | ||
| The Eggs and the Horses—Anonymous | ||
| Woman’s Will by John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) | ||
| The Worn Wedding-Ring by William Cox Bennett (1820–1895) | ||
| “If thou wert by my side, my love” by Reginald Heber (1783–1826) | ||
| “There’s nae luck about the house” by Jean Adam (1704–1765) | ||
| Dolcino to Margaret by Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) | ||
| “O, lay thy hand in mine, dear!” by Gerald Massey (1828–1907) | ||
| Faith and Hope by Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860) | ||
| Darby and Joan by Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848–1929) | ||
| The Golden Wedding by David Gray (1838–1861) | ||
| The Fire of Love by Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset (1638–1706) | ||
| “Not ours the vows” by Bernard Barton (1784–1849) | ||
| Laodamia by William Wordsworth (1770–1850) | ||
| “Till death us part” by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–1881) | ||
| The Old Man Dreams by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) | ||
| “John Anderson, my jo” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) | ||