Three Sunsets and Other Poems — Preface
PREFACE.
Nearly the whole of this volume is a reprint of the serious portion of _Phantasmagoria and other Poems_, which was first published in 1869 and has long been out of print.
"The Path of Roses" was written soon after the Crimean War, when the name of Florence Nightingale had already become a household-word.
"Only a Woman's Hair" was suggested by a circumstance mentioned in _The Life of Dean Swift_, viz.
, that, after his death, a small packet was found among his papers, containing a single lock of hair and inscribed with those words.
"After Three Days" was written after seeing Holman Hunt's picture, _The Finding of Christ in the Temple_.
The two poems, "Far Away" and "A Song of Love", are reprinted from _Sylvie and Bruno_ and _Sylvie and Bruno Concluded_, books whose high price (made necessary by the great cost of production) has, I fear, put them out of the reach of most of my readers.
"A Lesson in Latin" is reprinted from _The Jabberwock_, a Magazine got up among the Members of "The Girls' Latin School, Boston, U. S.
A."
The only poems, here printed for the first time, are put together under the title of "Puck Lost and Found," having been inscribed in two books--_Fairies_, a poem by Allingham, illustrated by Miss E. Gertrude Thomson, and _Merry Elves_, a story-book, by whom written I do not know, illustrated by C. O.
Murray--which were presented to a little girl and boy, as a sort of memento of a visit paid by them to the author one day, on which occasion he taught them the pastime--dear to the hearts of children--of folding paper-"pistols," which can be made to imitate, fairly well, the noise of a real one.
_Jan.
, 1898. _ CONTENTS.
PAGE
THREE SUNSETS 1
THE PATH OF ROSES 8
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH 15
SOLITUDE 23
FAR AWAY 26
BEATRICE 29
STOLEN WATERS 34
THE WILLOW-TREE 42
ONLY A WOMAN'S HAIR 44
THE SAILOR'S WIFE 48
AFTER THREE DAYS 53
FACES IN THE FIRE 59
A LESSON IN LATIN 63
PUCK LOST AND FOUND 64
A SONG OF LOVE 67
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FAIRIES AND NAUTILUS _Front.
_ FAIRIES IN BOAT 7
FAIRIES AND BOWER 14
SLEEPING FAIRIES 22
FAIRY RIDING ON CRAY-FISH 28
FAIRIES AND SQUIRREL 33
FAIRIES AND JONQUILS 41
FAIRIES AND FROG 47
FAIRY ON MUSHROOM 52
FAIRIES RIDING ON FISH 58
FAIRY AND WASP 62
FAIRIES UNDER MUSHROOM 66
