Excerpt from Golden Leaves From the American Poets I may be permitted to add, without incurring the charge of undue egotism, I trust, that the prepara tion of this work has been to me literally a labour of love. It seemed to me a fitting tribute to render to those Poets whose works had entered so largely into my professional studies for the last thirty years, and between whom and the mere cur sory reader, and those ofa yet immature age, I had endeavoured faithfully to act as an interpreter, that I should, in the probably closing effort Of my literary career, present a worthy monument record ing the Genius of American Poesy, acceptable to the reading Public, and one that should do honour to the Poets I have selected for representation; and to these Gifted Men and Women I most re spectfully dedicate these my humble labours. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.