NOTE THE present Edition includes not only the entire contents of all the previous editions, whether American, British, or Continental, but also many Lyrics, Ballads, Satires, and Sonnets heretofore unpublished: the whole constituting the Author's complete Poetical Works from 1858 to 1897-here given, for the first time, in a single Volume. Dedication THIS present, complete, and long-deferred Edition, I have now the sad privilege of inscribing, as a filial tribute, to the late MRS. EUSEBIA TILTON OF KEYPORT, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A. It was my cheerful hope, until a few months ago, that this revered woman—my venerable mother-would live to see and to welcome this book; but she recently died-in her eighty-seventh year-while these poems were passing through the press. So an inscription which I had meant to be to her living self is transformed by a touch of fate-into a dedication to her memory. As she had been neither ill nor even ailing, her sudden death was a surprise which fell upon me with bewilderment. The intelligence of my unsuspected misfortune reached me at the Riviera, on a bright March morning, upon a mountain-side whence I was watching the Mediterranean during some magical moments while (as Byron said)— 'A breeze Broke the blue crystal of the seas.' Knowing of course how the sudden effect of ill-news upon the unprepared mind is apt to darken the sunshine, and to turn the world black, I marvelled why the shock of the message which I held in my hand-(and which has since made me miserable enough!)—did not then, for the nonce, blot out for me the brightest landscape in Europe. On the contrary, I shall never forget the strange exaltation of spirit which I felt throughout the whole of that troubled day. 394230 |
