Some Masterpieces of Latin Poetry, Thought Into English Verse #226886

I owe an explanation of the present volume's appearance so soon after that on Greek Dramatic and Bucolic Poetry. Both are instalments of a collection of specimens of Greek and Latin Poetry thought by me into English verse. In 1907 I published "The Poets: Chaucer to Tennyson;" later, revised and reprinted as "Five Centuries of English Verse." I have occupied and delighted the subsequent years with a sort of analogous service to the general lovers of poetry, not professed "scholars," in respect of Greek and Latin poetry.<br><br>At least I did not hope to save labour, and have not spared it. Throughout the more than ten years devoted to the work I have continually been revising. Thus it is impossible even for myself to know how much energy has been devoted here or there. Measurement of thought is difficult. A verse may have cost me days to think from the original, while another corresponds at once, as if English born and bred. A result is that I have found bunches of charming Latin blossoms, willing, at whatever sacrifice of grace, to reflower in English air; and here they are!