| Introductory Essay |
| | The Place of Poetry in Life by Charles Francis Richardson (1851–1913) |
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| Poems of Fancy |
| I. The Imagination |
| | Fantasy by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) |
| | Hallo, my Fancy by William Cleland (1661?–1689) |
| | Ideality by Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) |
| | Fancy by John Keats (1795–1821) |
| | Imagination by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
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| II. Fairies: Elves: Sprites |
| | Queen Mab by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Oberon’s Feast by Robert Herrick (1591–1674) |
| | Fairy’s Song by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Compliment to Queen Elizabeth by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | The Fairies’ Lullaby by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Fairies’ Song by Thomas Randolph (1605–1635) |
| | The Fairies by William Allingham (1824–1889) |
| | Kilmeny by James Hogg (1770–1835) |
| | The Fairy Child by John Anster (1793–1867) |
| | Garden Fairies by Philip Bourke Marston (1850–1887) |
| | The Culprit Fay by Joseph Rodman Drake (1795–1820) |
| | “Oh! where do fairies hide their heads?” by Thomas Haynes Bayley (1797–1839) |
| | Songs of Ariel by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Airy Nothings by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | The Erl-King by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) |
| | The Djinns by Victor Hugo (1802–1885) |
| | The Lady lost in the Wood by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | The Nymph of the Severn by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | Tam O’ Shanter by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | The Lore-Lei by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) |
| | The Fisher by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) |
| | The Sirens’ Song by William Browne (c. 1590–c. 1645) |
| | The Forsaken Merman by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
| | The Flitting of the Fairies by Jane Barlow (1857–1917) |
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| III. Mythical: Mystical: Legendary |
| | A Musical Instrument by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | A Transformation by Ovid (43 B.C.–18 A.D.) |
| | The Comet by Charles Sangster (1822–1893) |
| | The Ballad of Judas Iscariot by Robert Buchanan (1841–1901) |
| | The Blessèd Damozel by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | The King’s Highway by Harriet Waters Preston (1836–1911) |
| | Rhœcus by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | Una and the Red Crosse Knight by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | Una and the Lion by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | The Bower of Bliss by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | The Cave of Sleep by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | From “The Castle of Indolence” by James Thomson (1700–1748) |
| | Outward Bound by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) |
| | From “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | Ulalume by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) |
| | The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) |
| | Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | The Haunted Palace by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) |
| | The Sunken City by Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827) |
| | The Walker of the Snow by Charles Dawson Shanly (1811–1875) |
| | The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning (1812–1889) |
| | Quatrains by William Hamilton Hayne (1856–1929) |
| | A Yellow Pansy by Helen Gray Cone (1859–1934) |
| | Echo and Silence by Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762–1837) |
| | Sherwood by Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) |
| | Far-Away by George Sigerson (1836–1925) |
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| Poems of Sentiment |
| I. Time |
| | Time the Supreme by Edward Young (1681–1765) |
| | To-morrow by Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) |
| | Three Days by James Roberts Gilmore (1822–1903) |
| | Procrastination by Edward Young (1681–1765) |
| | Ave atque Vale by Rosamund Marriott Watson (1860–1911) |
| | The Ballad of Dead Ladies by François Villon (1431–1463?) |
| | The Approach of Age by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | The Old Year and the New by William Cleaver Wilkinson (1833–1920) |
| | The Death of the old Year by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | A Fancy from Fontenelle by Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | What is the Grass? by Walt Whitman (1819–1892) |
| | The Petrified Fern by Mary L. Bolles Branch (1840–1922) |
| | The Making of Man by John White Chadwick (1840–1904) |
| | The Ascent of Man by Rossiter Worthington Raymond (1840–1918) |
| | Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) |
| | Time: An Enigma by Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) |
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| II. Life |
| | This Life by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) |
| | The Character of a Happy Life by Sir Henry Wotton (1568–1639) |
| | Retribution by Friedrich von Logau (1604–1655) |
| | The Lye by Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618) |
| | The Generous Air by Palladas (fl. 4th Century A.D.) |
| | Good Life, Long Life by Ben Jonson (1572–1637) |
| | Life by Richard Henry Wilde (1789–1847) |
| | “Where lies the land?” by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) |
| | Life by George Herbert (1593–1633) |
| | Life by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) |
| | The Rose-Bush by Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862) |
| | History of a Life by Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) (1787–1874) |
| | My Quaker Grandmothers by Oliver Huckel (1864–1940) |
| | Address to the Mummy at Belzoni’s Exhibition by Horace Smith (1779–1849) |
| | London Bridge by Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848–1929) |
| | The Crowded Street by William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | L’ Allegro by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | Dining by E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) |
| | The Family Skeleton by George Meredith (1828–1909) |
| | The Epicure by Anacreon (582–485 B.C.) |
| | The Indian Weed—Anonymous (Seventeenth Century) |
| | Smoking Spiritualized by Ralph Erskine (1685–1752) |
| | Without and Within by Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) |
| | Il Penseroso by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | The Wild Ride by Louise Imogen Guiney (1861–1920) |
| | The Vagabonds by John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916) |
| | Fame by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) |
| | Pelters of Pyramids by Richard Henry Hengist Horne (1802–1884) |
| | Enid’s Song by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Fortune by Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790–1867) |
| | Opportunity by William Blake (1757–1827) |
| | Opportunity by John James Ingalls (1833–1900) |
| | Undeveloped Lives by William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838–1903) |
| | Augury by Edith Matilda Thomas (1854–1925) |
| | “Keep sweet and keep movin’” by Robert Jones Burdette (1844–1914) |
| | A Tear by Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | The Jester’s Sermon by George Walter Thornbury (1828–1876) |
| | The Fool’s Prayer by Edward Rowland Sill (1841–1887) |
| | At Midsummer by Louise Chandler Moulton (1835–1908) |
| | A Sunrise Song by Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) |
| | Illusions by Robert Underwood Johnson (1853–1937) |
| | Proem by Joaquin Miller (1841–1913) |
| | A California Christmas by Joaquin Miller (1841–1913) |
| | Yussouf by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | Beauty by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | Beauty Unadorned by Propertius (c. 50–c. 16 B.C.) |
| | Fortune by Sophocles (c. 496–406 B.C.) |
| | Greatness by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) |
| | Perseverance by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) |
| | The One White Hair by Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | Growing Gray by Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | Healthful Old Age by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Quack Medicines by George Crabbe (1754–1832) |
| | The Three Warnings by Hester Lynch Thrale (1741–1821) |
| | Old Age and Death by Edmund Waller (1606–1687) |
| | The Ruling Passion by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) |
| | The Will by John Donne (1572–1631) |
| | To a Skeleton—Anonymous |
| | The True Philosophy of Life by William Dunbar (1460?–1520?) |
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| III. Memory |
| | Blest Memory by Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | Sudden Light by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | Pre-Existence by Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) |
| | Once Before by Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905) |
| | A Lost Chord by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) |
| | The Closing Year by George Denison Prentice (1802–1870) |
| | Roma by Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907) |
| | “There is such power” by Arlo Bates (1850–1918) |
| | Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk by William Cowper (1731–1800) |
| | Mignon’s Song by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) |
| | “Oft in the stilly night” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | On the Ruins of a Country Inn by Philip Freneau (1752–1832) |
| | “’T is but a little faded flower” by Ellen Clementine Howarth (1827–1899) |
| | The Brier-Wood Pipe by Charles Dawson Shanly (1811–1875) |
| | Memory and Oblivion by Macedonius of Thessalonica (c. 500–560 A.D.) |
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| IV. Thought: Poetry: Books |
| | The Inner Vision by William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | Thought by Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813–1892) |
| | Dream-Life by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681) |
| | “My minde to me a kingdom is” by Sir Edward Dyer (1543–1607) |
| | To One who had scoffed at the Poet’s Poverty by Martial (c. 40–c. 104 A.D.) |
| | Of a Contented Spirit by Thomas, Lord Vaux (1509–1556) |
| | “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” by John Keats (1795–1821) |
| | The Sower and his Seed by William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838–1903) |
| | Æsop by Andrew Lang (1844–1912) |
| | Indirection by Richard Realf (1832–1878) |
| | Proem by Madison Cawein (1865–1914) |
| | The Poet of Nature by Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) |
| | Above the Clouds by Joaquin Miller (1841–1913) |
| | The Poet’s Impulse by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | Impression by Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) |
| | The Ancient and Modern Muses by Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) |
| | On his “Sonnets of the Wingless Hours” by Eugene Lee-Hamilton (1845–1907) |
| | The Poet of To-day by Sarah Jane Lippincott (Grace Greenwood) (1823–1904) |
| | Unknown Poets by William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | The Ballad of Prose and Rhyme by Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats (1795–1821) |
| | From “The Odyssey” by Andrew Lang (1844–1912) |
| | Sonnet: “Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show” by Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | The Singer of One Song by Henry Augustin Beers (1847–1926) |
| | The Sonnet by Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) |
| | An Autograph by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | Art by Sir Gilbert Parker (1862–1932) |
| | Broken Music by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) |
| | The Modern Poet by Alice Meynell (1847–1922) |
| | The Jester’s Plea by Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821–1895) |
| | Verses, why Burnt by Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | Sweet Nature’s Voice by Arthur Joseph Munby (1828–1910) |
| | Genius by Richard Henry Hengist Horne (1802–1884) |
| | “One day I wrote her name” by Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599) |
| | The Poet’s Death by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | Thy Songs and Mine by Julia C. R. Dorr (1825–1913) |
| | The Sharing of the Earth by Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) |
| | The Immortality of Genius by Propertius (c. 50–c. 16 B.C.) |
| | Written on a Fly-Leaf of Theocritus by Maurice Thompson (1844–1901) |
| | Books—Anonymous |
| | The Scholar by Sir Henry Taylor (1800–1886) |
| | The Book-Stall by Clinton Scollard (1860–1932) |
| | Books by John Higgins |
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| V. The Arts |
| | Influence of Music by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Music by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | To —— by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
| | The Cello by Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) |
| | A Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day, 1687 by John Dryden (1631–1700) |
| | The Spell by Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) |
| | The Passions by William Collins (1721–1759) |
| | Invocation by Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) |
| | Alexander’s Feast; or, the Power of Music by John Dryden (1631–1700) |
| | Beethoven’s Third Symphony by Richard Hovey (1864–1900) |
| | Pan in Wall Street by Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833–1908) |
| | On an Intaglio Head of Minerva by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) |
| | The Artist by Arthur Grissom (1869?–1901) |
| | A Painted Fan by Louise Chandler Moulton (1835–1908) |
| | On a Fan by Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
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| VI. Labor and Rest |
| | Hack and Hew by Bliss Carman (1861–1929) |
| | The Axe by Isabella Valancy Crawford (1850–1887) |
| | Labor by Frances Sargent Osgood (1811–1850) |
| | The Song of the Lower Classes by Ernest Charles Jones (1819–1869) |
| | “The Man with the Hoe” by Edwin Markham (1852–1940) |
| | “The Man with the Hoe”: a Reply by John Vance Cheney (1848–1922) |
| | Corn-Law Hymn by Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849) |
| | For a’ That and a’ That by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | The Good Time Coming by Charles Mackay (1814–1889) |
| | The Lotus-Eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Delay by Charlotte Fiske Bates (1838–1916) |
| | The Happy Heart by Thomas Dekker (c. 1570–1632) |
| | The Cobbler and the Financier by Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695) |
| | Labor Done by Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) |
| | Haste not! Rest not! by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) |
| | Work by Henry van Dyke (1852–1933) |
| | A Wish by Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) |
| | Contentment by Joshua Sylvester (1563–1618) |
| | Content by Robert Greene (1558–1592) |
| | Song: “He that is down need fear no fall” by John Bunyan (1628–1688) |
| | In Prison by Sir Roger L’Estrange (1616–1704) |
| | Cleon and I by Charles Mackay (1814–1889) |
| | The Wants of Man by John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) |
| | Contentment by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) |
| | Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | To All in Haven by Philip Bourke Marston (1850–1887) |
| | A Woman’s Wish by Mary Ashley Townsend (1836–1901) |
| | The World and the Quietist by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
| | Rest by Margaret L. Woods (1856–1945) |
| | Invocation to Sleep by John Fletcher (1579–1625) |
| | Sleep by John Wolcot (Peter Pindar) (1738–1819) |
| | Sleep by Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | Sleep by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Sleeplessness by William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | Watching by Emily Chubbuck Judson (Fanny Forrester) (1817–1854) |
| | The Voyage of Sleep by Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton (1849–1937) |
| | The Two Oceans by John Sterling (1806–1844) |
| | Ode to Sleep by Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) |
| | The Fallen by John Vance Cheney (1848–1922) |
