English Poetry I: Chaucer to Gray: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics Vol. XL (in 51 Volumes)

Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name Harvard Classics this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature philosophy history and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926) Harvard Universitys longest-serving president. Also known as Dr. Eliots Five Foot Shelf it represented Eliots belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume XL is the first of three volumes that ambitiously survey half a milliennium of poetry in the English language. Almost 300 works by more than 75 authors in this volume alone span the 14th through 18th centuries and include: - Geoffrey Chaucer: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales - George Gascoigne: A Lovers Lullaby - Sir Walter Raleigh: His Pilgrimage - Sir Philip Sidney: A Ditty - Edmund Spenser: Rudely Thou Wrongest My Dear Hearts Desire - Christopher Marlowe: The Passionate Shepherd to His Love - William Shakespeare: O Mistress Mine - Thomas Campion: Follow thy Fair Sun - Ben Jonson: The Noble Nature - John Donne: Stay O Sweet - George Herbert: The Elixir - Richard Lovelace: To Lucasta on Going to the Wars - Andrew Marvell: Love Will Find Out the Way - John Dryden: Song for St. Cecilias Day - Alexander Pope: On a Certain Lady at Court - Thomas Gray: Elegy as well as traditional ballads and numerous works by writers who remain anonymous to us today. Useful explanatory footnotes explain the meanings of obsolete and rare words as well as those in dialect.