TRANSLATION OF DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA INTO ENGLISH VERSE. 16m0, $1.50. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK. PUBLISHERS' NOTE DR. PARSONS was singularly indifferent to his repute as a poet. For poetry and for his own poetic expression he cared greatly; the permanence of his productions he left not indeed to chance but to the inherent vitality there might be in his verse, taking little pains to secure an audience, and none at all in his later years to making such collections and arranging his poems in such order as would insure the attention of a world distracted by the demand of writers great and small. In 1854 a volume of his poems was issued by Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, and in 1872 another general collection, "The Shadow of the Obelisk and Other Poems," by Messrs. Hatchards, in London. He contented himself otherwise with printing, not publishing, thin volumes of verse like "The Magnolia," and "The Old House at Sudbury," which now and then found their way into the bookstores, but more frequently were the cherished possession of his personal friends. He made use, too, of magazines and newspapers and iv PUBLISHERS' NOTE printed leaflets containing poems of special occasions or having some immediate interest for himself and his circle of friends. It is from these varied sources that the present volume has been gathered. It does not aim at completeness. Dr. Parsons himself, though frequently urged by the present publishers to make a definitive edition of his poems, could never be induced to set about the task. Had he done so he would most certainly have swept aside a good many of his verses, for he was a most fastidious critic of his own work after his passion or his playful impulse had found expression. Therefore the principle herein adopted cannot be foreign from his own purpose; the volume is a somewhat representative selection, covering indeed the greater portion of his lyrical writing, but by no means complete. It will be understood, of course, that this volume gathers Dr. Parsons's verses alone. The companion volume containing his translation of Dante and a brief biographical sketch by Miss Guiney represents the great poetic passion of the man. 4 PARK STREET, BOSTON, October, 1893. |