printed and are generally familiar, while the works of others, little less deserving of consideration, are comparatively unknown.

There is in all the republic scarcely a native inhabitant of Saxon origin who cannot read and write. Every house has its book closet and every town its public library. The universal prevalence of intelligence, and that self-respect and confidence arising from political and social equality, have caused a great increase of writers. Owing, however, to the absence of a just system of copyright, the rewards of literary exertion are so precarious that but a small number give their exclusive attention to literature. A high degree of excellence, especially in poetry, is attained only by constant and quiet study and cultivation." Our poets have generally written with too little preparation, and too hastily, to win enduring reputations.

In selecting the specimens in the work, I have regarded humorous and other rhythmical compositions, not without merit in their way, as poetry, though they possess few of its true elements. It is so common to mistake the form for the divine essence, that I should have been compelled to omit the names of many who are popularly known as poets, had I been governed by a more strict definition.

PHILADELPHIA, March, 1842.

POETS AND POETRY OF AMERICA.

Introduction.

FROM THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS TO THE REVOLUTION.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION. PAGE 5 WASHINGTON ALLSTON, (CONTINUED.)