The Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 4: Nineteenth Century (Yesterday’s Classics)

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The Oxford Book of English Verse in its entirety is a choice collection of over 800 poems spanning the period from 1250-1900, selected and edited by the eminent British literary figure, Arthur Quiller-Couch. This fourth part, roughly covering the nineteenth century, leads the reader through one of the most productive periods in English literature.

This volume includes 376 poems by 128 different poets, arranged in order by the year of their birth. As you might imagine, the Romantic poets are well-represented in the collection, by William Wordsworth (27 poems), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (7), Percy Bysshe Shelley (14), Lord Byron (5), and John Keats (15). Similarly, the Victorian poets appear in abundance, with substantial contributions from Elizabeth Barrett Browning (10), Alfred Lord Tennyson (11), Robert Browning (16), Matthew Arnold (8), and Christina Georgina Rossetti (11). But there are also many fine poems from less familiar poets for the reader to discover. Most of the poems were penned by British poets, with a handful from American authors.

Having set his heart on choosing the best, the compiler consulted existing anthologies, but only after making his own choice. As he says, The best is the best, though a hundred judges have declared it so.