Charlotte Fiske Bates, The Cambridge Book of Poetry and Song. Selected from English and American Authors. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1882)

Information about the collection: A massive tome (882 pp.), with the table of contents arranged alphabetically, by author, and by first line (the last forms an index). The poems themselves are arranged alphabetically by author, and the volume is illustrated "by Fredericks, Church, Dielman, Taylor, Harry Fenn, Gifford and other eminent artists."

Preface: Though text-books of every variety about, and many persons assert the old to be better than the new, yet every year sees no inconsiderable number added to their list. It is folly to suppose that any one prepares a work merely for the sake of doing it, and careful examination proves that every successor in a given field has some superiority of plan, comprehensiveness, detail, or material to recommend it. Something it may lack that others have; but it also has something that others lack. So it is with compilations of poetry. Every one is found faulty somewhere, by somebody, nor can it be imagined possible, with the varied tastes of men, that the work of one should be so all-embracing as to leave no intelligent reader disappointed. The compiler of this volume has not pretended to make what she has never found, -- a perfect compilation, -- and will be gratified if this prove so well done as to save it from the charge of being a supernumerary. Whatever its defects, it still carries out, in the main, her aim in undertaking it, which was --

First. -- To represent the genius of woman as fairly as that of man.

Second. -- To the extent of the compiler's power, to give those poets their just dues who have hitherto not had them.

Third. -- To quote largely, though in brief passages, from those authors whose works, through their uninviting looks, length, or subject, or the undue bias imparted by ridicule and one-sided criticism, are generally seldom read, and but imperfectly represented.

Fourth. -- To bring together not only copious extracts from the standard and popular writers of Great Britain and America, but also a goodly number of poems from the very latest volumes of both countries, and a representation, through one poem, at least, of those whose writings are as yet uncollected, and whose names have not appeared in other compilations.

The alphabetic arrangement of the work -- prepared virtually in portions; not offered complete to the printers -- demanded unusual readiness in the choice and supply of material, and the temporary omissions of chance or necessity placed authors and poems desired for the body of work in its supplement. A glance at the latter will quickly discover, from its value, that, though coming after, it is no afterthought.

A number of names on the compiler's list were, through accident, wholly omitted, while others were left out through want of space on account of the length of poems, or because extracts could not be seasonably obtained. Positive knowledge of insufficient space excluded translations from the work, and though ballads and anonymous poems were in the plan, there was found to be very meagre room for even these.

In comparing the extent of representation, it will be remembered that the space occupied by these poems, no less than their number, must be considered. Other things being equal, the compiler welcomes brevity, and the more his works admit of short and striking quotation, the more variously can he be represented. It often happens that one long lyric claims as much room as five or six short ones, while a mere glance at the index would seem to indicate injustice.

To the editor's sincere regret, and through circumstances over which she had no control, Joaquin Miller, John White Chadwick, and Walt Whitman are unrepresented in this volume; while the poems of Helen Jackson, Dr. Joyce, and Edgar Fawcett are, from a like necessity, not those at first selected from their works....[omitted: publisher acknowledgements]

Table of Contents:  Has to be scanned in.