Samuel Pratt, The Cabinet of Poetry, containing the best entire pieces to be found in the works of the British Poets. 6 Volumes (London: Richard Phillips, 1808)

Information about the collection: No preface in any of the volumes, though the first contains an advertisement reproduced below and a faily long "essay on poetry" (about 70 pages). There are headnotes of about 2 pages for each poet, with fairly detailed biographical information. The TOC for each volume is much like they are reproduced below, except that the page numbers for each poem are listed on the right-hand side of the page. Each volume has an engraving of one poet from a painting or miniature, and each title page carries the following epigraph from Burke: 

Advertisement (from volume 1): The Poets at large, like the Statutes at large, are proverbial for the useless lumber which they contain, and have long been a heavy tax on the purse and patience of the Public. The present Work is compiled on the principle of rejecting all the worthless and uninteresting parts of their compositions, and retaining only the best and most exquisite pieces. It is in regard to the mass of English Poetry, strictly A Cabinet of Gems; amd though it may not include every poem which, according to various opinions, might properly appear in such a Selection, no articles will be found in it which do not possess unquestionable beauty, and afford adequate specimens of the peculiar genius and manner of their respective Authors. 

Table of Contents:  [volume 1][volume 2][volume 3][volume 4][volume 5][volume 6]

Volume 1: (Engraving is of Milton, by Caroline Watson, from a miniature by Cooper)

MILTON

Paradise Lost, Book 1
Book II
Book III
Book IV
Book V
Book VI
Book VII
Book VIII
Book IX
Book X
Book XI
Book XII
Comus, a masque
L'Allegro
Il Penseroso
Lycidas
Samson Agonistes

Volume 2: (Engraving is of Dryden, by Caroline Watson, from a painting by Beale)

COWLEY

Hymn to Light
Ode of Wit
Ode upon Liberty
Of of Solitude
The Country Life
The Garden
Of Avarice
Upon the shortness of Man's Life
The Chronicle
The Author's Epitaph

WALLER

On a Girdle
The Bud
An Apology for having loved before
The Night-piece
Of English Verse
The Battle of the Summer Islands
The Mutable Fair
Song
On the Author's Divine Poems

BUTLER

Satire upon Gaming
--- on our ridiculous imitation of the French
--- upon Drunkenness

DENHAM

Cooper's Hill
Friendship and Single Life against Love and Marriage

DRYDEN

On the Death of a very young Gentleman
Song for St. Cecilia's Day
On the Monument of a Maiden Lady
An Essay upon Satire
Religio Laici
Veni Creator Spiritus
Mac-Flecknoe
Ode to the Memory of Mrs. Anne Killigrew
Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music

ROCHESTER

A Song
Upon Drinking in a Bowl
Upon Nothing
A Song

POMFRET

To his Friend inclined to Marry
The Choice

PHILLIPS

The Splendid Shilling
Cider, Book I.
Book II.

KING

Upon a Giant's angling
Just as you please; or the Incurious
A Gentleman to his Wife
The Art of Cookery

SPRATT

The Plague of Athens

HALIFAX

The Man of Honour

PARNELL

Hesiod; or, the Rise of Woman
Song. Love and Innocence.
A Fairy Tale, in the English style
To Mr. Pope
Health, an eclogue
The Book-worm
A Night-piece on Death
The Hermit
Hymn for Morning
--- Noon
--- Evening

GARTH

The Dispensary, Canto I. Canto II. Canto III. Canto IV. Canto V. Canto VI.
Claremont
Verses for the Toasting Glasses of the Kit-cat-club

ROWE

The Golden Verses of Pythagoras
Colin's Complaint
Reply, by another hand

ADDISON

Song for St. Cecilia's Day, at Oxford
An Account of the greatest English Poets
A Letter from Italy to Lord Halifax
The Campaign
Cowley's Epitaph upon Himself
An Ode for St. Cecilia's Day
An Ode
An Hymn

HUGHES

The Picture
The Triumph of Peace
The Birth of the Rose
The Ecstasy, an ode

BUCKINGHAM

To a Coquet Beauty
The Relapse
The Recovery
An Essay on Poetry

FENTON

To a Lady sitting before her Glass
An Epistle to Mr. Southerne
Kisses, translated from Secundus
An Ode

YALDEN

Hymn to the Morning
--- to Darkness
Human Life
An Ode for St. Cecilia's Day
The Farmer and his Dog
The Sea and the Banks
The Boar and Forest

GAY

Rural Sports; a Georgic, Canto I.
Canto II
Saturday; or. the Flights
An Epistle to a Lady
Trivia; or the Art of Walking London Streets, Book I
Book II. Of Walking the Streets by Day
Book III. Of Walking the Streets by Night
An Epistle
The Birth of the Squire
The Toilet, a town eclogue
The Tea-Table, a town eclogue
The Funeral, a town eclogue
The Espousal, a sober eclogue
Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan
A Ballad, from the What d'ye-call-it
A Song of new Similes
A Contemplation of Night
A Thought on Eternity

Volume 3: (Engraving is of Pope, by Caroline Watson)

PRIOR

To Cloe Weeping
Love disarmed
Cloe Hunting
A Lover's Anger
The Garland
To a young Gentleman in Love
An English Padlock
The Cameleon
Henry and Emma
An Epitaph
Charity
Truth and Falsehood

POPE

The Messiah, a sacred eclogue
Windsor Forest
Ode on St. Cecila's Day
-- on Solitude
The Dying Christian to his Soul
Essay on Criticism
The Rape of the Lock
Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate Lady
Eloisa to Abelard
The Temple of Fame
Essay on Man
The Universal Prayer
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
Epistle to the Earl of Oxford
Epitaphs
Moral Essays

TICKELL

To the Earl of Warwick, on the Death of Mr. Addison
Colin and Lucy
Kensington Garden
To a Lady, before Marriage
Oxford, inscribed to Lord Lonsdale

SOMERVILLE

The Chase
Address to his Elbow Chair new clothed

PATTISON

The College Life
Rosamond to Henry
Henry to Rosamond
Abelard to Eloisa

HAMMOND

Love Elegies

SAVAGE

The Wanderer; a Vision, in five Cantos
The Bastard

HILL

The Picture of Love
Advice to the Poets
Solitude

BROOME

A Poem on Death
Alone, in an Inn at Southampton
Poverty and Poetry
The Rose-bud

SWIFT

Vanbrigh's House, built from the Ruins of Whitehall
Description of the Morning
Description of a City Shower
Cadenus and Vanessa
To Stella
The Progress of Poetry
On the Death of Mr. Swift
On Poetry
To Stella, on her Birth Day
The Furniture of a Woman's Mind

FALCONER

The Shipwreck

WATTS

Earth and Heaven
True Learning
True Wisdom
Freedom
True Riches
Few Happy Matches
The Indian Philosopher
The Happy Man
False Greatness

BLAIR

The Grave

Volume 4: (Engraving is of Thomson, by Caroline Watson)

THOMSON

The Seasons - Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
A Hymn
The Castle of Indolence. Canto I.
Canto II.
To Mr. Thomson, on the Castle of Indolence
Song
Ode on Aeolus's Harp
Hymn on Solitude
Elegy on the Death of Mr. Aikman the Painter
Song

MALLET

A Fragment
Edwin and Emma
A Winter's Day
William and Margaret

PHILLIPS

To the Honourable Miss Carteret
From Holland to a Friend in England
To the Earl of Dorset
A Hymn to Venus
A Fragment of Sappho
To Mr. Ambrose Phillips

HAMILTON

Contemplation; or the Triumph of Love
To the Countess of Eglintoun
Ode to Fancy
The Braes of Yarrow

COLLINS

Selim; or, the Shepherd's Moral
Hassan; or the Camel Driver
Abra; or. the Georgian Sultana
Agib and Secander; or, the Fugitives
Ode to Fear
Ode to Simplicity
Ode on the Political Character
Ode to Evening
Ode to Peace
The Manners, an ode
The Passions, an ode for music
Dirge in Cymbeline
Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson

DYER

Grongar Hill
The Country Walk
To Mr. Savage
An Epistle to a Friend in Town

SHENSTONE

Elegies
Ode to Memory
Ode to Health
The Dying Kid
Songs
A Pastoral Ballad
The Rape of the Trap
Written at an Inn at Henley
The Judgment of Hercules
The School-Mistress
On a Tablet against a Root-house
On the Back of a Gothic Seat
On the Back of a Gothic Alcove
On a Seat on the Side of a Slope

AKENSIDE

The Pleasures of the Imagination, Book I., Book II, Book III.
Chearfulness, an ode
Ode to the Muse
Ode on Love. To a friend
Ode to the Evening Star
Ode to the Cuckoo
Ode on the Love of Praise
Hymn to the Naiads
Hymn to Science

YOUNG

The Complaint; or, Night Thoughts
Night I. - On Life, Death, and Immortality
Night II. - On Time, Death, and Friendship
Love of Fame the universal Passion

Volume 5: (Engraving is of Gray, by Caroline Watson)

GRAY

Ode on the Spring
--- on the Death of a favourite Cat
--- on a distant Prospect of Eton College
Hymn to Adversity
Elegy written in a Country Church-Yard
The Progress of Poesy
The Bard

WEST

Ad Amicos, imitated from Tibullus
Ode to May

LYTTLETON

The Progress of Love
Advice to a Lady
Damon and Delia
Song, written in 1732
To Miss Lucy Fortescue
To the same, with a new watch
Monody to the Memory of the same Lady
Mount Edgecumbe

MOORE

Fables: -- The Farmer, the Spaniel, and the Cat
The Spider and the Bee
The Owl and the Nightingale
The Female Seducers
Love and Vanity

THOMPSON

An Hymn to May
The Happy Life
The Magi, a sacred eclogue

CAWTHORN

Abelard to Eloisa
The Regulation of the Passions
Lady Jane Grey to Lord Guilford Dudley

CHURCHILL

The Author
Night, an epistle to Robert Lloyd

LLOYD

The Cit's Country Box
Ode
Progress of Envy
To the Moon

CUNNINGHAM

Day, a pastoral
The Contemplatist, a night piece
May-Eve, or Kate of Aberdeen
On the Approach of May
The Violets
The Narcissus
Content, a pastoral
Elegy on a Pile of Ruins
Reputation, an allegory
The Rose and the Butterfly
The Broken China
Verses by the Author

GREEN

The Spleen, an Epistle to Mr. Cuthbert Jackson

COOPER

Hymn to Health
Song to Winifreda
A Father's Advice to his Son
The Tomb of Shakspeare

GOLDSMITH

The Hermit
The Traveller
The Deserted Village

GRAINGER

Solitude
Bryan and Pereene

SMOLLET

Ode to Mirth
Ode to Leven Water
Ode to Independence
Songs

ARMSTRONG

The Art of preserving Health

BROWN

An Essay on Satire

DODSLEY

Melpomene; or, the Regions of Terror and Pity
Pain and Patience
Colin's Kisses
The Wife, a fragment
A Lady's Salutation to her Garden in the Country
Song

SMART

Idleness
To Ethelinda
Good Nature
Ill Nature
A Morning Piece
A Noon Piece
A Night Piece
On the Fifth of December
Hymn to the Supreme Being

LANGHORNE

Hymn to Hope
An Elegy
Inscription on the Door of a Study
Monody
To Mrs. Gillman
Happiness of a moderate Fortune and moderate Desires
Hymn to Humanity
Hymn to the Rising Sun
Hymn to the Eternal Providence
Verses in Memory of a Lady
The Fables of Flora. --
The Sunflower and Ivy
The Evening Primrose
The Laurel and the Reed
The Garden Rose and the Wild Rose
The Violet and the Pansy
The Queen of the Meadow and the Crown Imperial
The Wall-flower
The Tulip and the Myrtle
The Bee-flower
The Wilding and the Broom
The Mistletoe and the Passion-flower

BRUCE

A Pastoral Song
Sir James the Ross
Elegy, written in Spring

CHATTERTON

February
Elegy
Elegy
The Resignation
The Art of Puffing

SHAW

Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady
An Evening Address to a Nightingale

LOVIBOND

The Tears of Old May Day
On Rural Sports
On Politics
On Man being deprived, from custom and delicacy, of enjoying social Friendship with the Fair Sex

PENROSE

Flights of Fancy
The Hermit's Vision
The Field of Battle
Mortality
The Curate, a fragment

Volume 6: (Engraving is of Dr. Young, by Caroline Watson)

MICKLE

Pollio, an elegaic ode
Mary Queen of Socts
Knowledge, an ode
Hengist and Mey, a ballad
The Neglect of Poetry

JAGO

Labour and Genius
Female Empire, a true history
The Mistake
To William Shenstone, Esq
An Elegy on Man
Hamlet's Soliloquy imitated
The Blackbirds
The Goldfinches
The Swallows

SCOTT

Moral Eclogues -- I. Theron, or the Praise of Rural Life
II. Palemon, or Benevolence
III. Armyn, or the Discontented
IV. Lycoron, or the Unhappy
Elegy written at Amwell
Amwell, a descriptive poem
Oriental Eclogues -- Zerad, or the Absent Lover
Serim, or the Artificial Famine
Li-po, or the Good Governor
Odes -- To Childhood
On hearing Music
To a Friend, apprehensive of declining Friendship
The Muse, or Poetical Enthusiasm
On Hospitality
To Criticism
The Melancholy Evening
The Pleasant Evening
Winter Amusements in the Country, an epistle
The Author to his Wife
To Fear

JOHNSON

London
The Vanity of Human Wishes
Prologue spoken by Mr. Garrick
Spring, an ode
Midsummer
Autumn
Winter
The Winter's Walk
Evening, an ode to Stella
To the same
To a Friend
Stella in Mourning
To Stella
Verses written at the request of a Gentleman to whom a Lady had given a Sprig of Myrtle
To Lyce, an elderly Lady
Paraphrase on Proverbs vi. 6-11
Horace, lib. iv. ode vii. translated
On seeing a Bust of Mrs. Montague

WHITEHEAD

The Danger of writing Verse
Ann Boleyn to Henry the Eighth
On Ridicule
On Nobility
On Friendship
The Enthusiast
Ode to the Tiber
Elegies - I. Written at the Convent of Haut Villers, in Champagne
II. On the Mausoleum of Augustus
III. To the Right Hon. Viscount Nuneham
IV. To an Officer
V. To a Sick Friend
VI. To the Rev. Mr. Sanderson
Verses to the People of England
Venus attiring the Graces
The Je ne scais Quoi
Song for Ranelagh
In a Hermitage at Middleton Park, Oxfordshire
The Vision of Solomon
To Dr. Stebbing
A pathetic Apology
Inscription in the Garden at Nuneham, in Oxfordshire

JENYNS

The Art of Dancing - Canto I.
Canto II.
An Essay on Virtue
The Modern Fine Gentleman
The Modern Fine Lady
To a Lady, in Answer to a Letter wrote in a fine Hand
Chloe to Strephon
The Choice
Written in Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding
The Snow Ball
On the Immortality of the Soul
The American Coachman
Burlesque Ode

GRAEME

Elegies, Moral, Descriptive, and Amatory
Hymn to the Eternal Mind

GLOVER

On Sir Isaac Newton
London, or the Progress of Commerce
Admiral Hosier's Ghost

LOGAN

Ode to the Cuckoo
Song. The Braes of Yarrow
Ode on the Death of a Young Lady
Ode to Women
Ossian's Hymn to the Sun
Ode written in Spring
Song
Ode to Sleep
Ode to a Man of Letters
Ode written on a Visit to the Country in Autumn
Hymns - I. The Praise of Jacob
II. The Complaint of Nature
III. Trust in Providence
IV. Heavenly wisdom
V-IX.

WARTON

The Triumph of Isis
Inscription in a Hermitage
Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds
Odes- To Sleep
The Hamlet
The Complaint of Cherwell
The First of April
The Crusade
On the Approach of Summer

COTTON

Visions - Slander
Life
Death
Fables - Neptune and the Mariners
The Snail and the Gardener
The Fireside
To a Child
To-morrow
The Night Piece

BLACKLOCK

Hymn to the Supreme Being
Hymn to Fortitude
Ode to Happiness
Ode to a Coquette
The Wish, an elegy
Address to the Ladies

MASON

Musaeus, a monody
Odes - I. To Memory
II. To a Water Nymph
III. To an AEolian Harp
IV. To Independency
V. To a Friend
On the Fate of Tyranny
Elegies - I. To a Young Nobleman
II. Written in the Garden of a Friend
III. To the Rev. Mr. Hurd
IV. On the Death of a Lady

BURNS

Cotter's Saturday Night
A Winter Night
To a Mountain Daisy
To a Mouse

BEATTIE

The Minstrel - Book I.
Book II.
The Hermit


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