The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics is a popular anthology of English poetry, originally selected for publication by Francis Turner Palgrave in 1861.[1] It was considerably revised, with input from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, about three decades later. Palgrave excluded all poems by poets then still alive.[2]
The book continues to be published in regular new editions; still under Palgrave's name. These reproduce Palgrave's selections and notes, but usually include a supplement of more recent poems. Christopher Ricks in 1991 produced a scholarly edition of the original Treasury, along with an account of its evolution from 1861 to 1891, with inclusions and exclusions.
William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling – Richard Barnefield – Thomas Campion – Samuel Daniel – Thomas Dekker – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex – John Donne – Michael Drayton – William Drummond – Thomas Heywood – Thomas Lodge – John Lylye – Christopher Marlowe – Thomas Nashe – William Shakespeare – Sir Philip Sidney – Edmund Spenser – The Shepherd Tonie – Joshua Sylvester – John Webster – Sir Thomas Wyatt
Francis Beaumont – Thomas Carew – Abraham Cowley – Richard Crashaw – John Dryden – John Fletcher – William Habington – George Herbert – Robert Herrick – Ben Jonson – Richard Lovelace – Andrew Marvell – John Milton – John Norris of Bemerton – Francis Quarles – Sir Charles Sedley – John Shirley – Sir John Suckling – Henry Vaughan – Edmund Waller – John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester – George Wither – Sir Henry Wotton
Anna Laetitia Barbauld – William Blake – Robert Burns – Henry Carey – Colley Cibber – John Collins – William Collins – William Cowper – Jane Elliott – John Gay – Oliver Goldsmith – Robert Graham of Gartmore – Thomas Gray – Lady A. Lindsay – Joshua Logan – W. J. Mickle – Lady Nairn – Ambrose Philips – Alexander Pope – Matthew Prior – Samuel Rogers – Christopher Smart – James Thomson
William Blake – Lord Byron – Thomas Campbell – Hartley Coleridge – Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Allan Cunningham – Thomas Hood – John Keats – Charles Lamb – Mary Lamb – H. F. Lyte – Thomas Moore – Percy Bysshe Shelley – Sir Walter Scott – Robert Southey – Charles Wolfe – William Wordsworth
This five-book version is republished as a Penguin Popular ClassicMatthew Arnold – William Barnes – F. W. Bourdillon – Robert Bridges – Emily Brontë – Rupert Brooke – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Robert Browning – John Clare – Arthur Hugh Clough – Mary Coleridge – William Johnson Cory – John Davidson – Austin Dobson – D. M. Dolben – George Darley – R. W. Dixon – Edward FitzGerald – James Elroy Flecker – Thomas Hardy – Thomas Hood – Gerard Manley Hopkins – Lionel Johnson – Charles Kingsley – Rudyard Kipling – Walter Savage Landor – Hon. Emily Lawless – J. C. Mangan – John Masefield – George Meredith – William Morris – Sir Henry Newbolt – Alice Meynell – William Morris – Wilfred Owen – Coventry Patmore – Christina Georgina Rossetti – Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Charles Sorley – Robert Louis Stevenson – Algernon Charles Swinburne – Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Edward Thomas – Francis Thompson – H. F. Trench – William Butler Yeats
An important edition was edited by Cecil Day-Lewis, later Poet laureate. It contained 229 Additional Poems, with Books I-IV, including in this case a number of American poets.
William Blake – Walter Savage Landor – T. L. Peacock – John Clare – W. C. Bryant – George Darley – William Barnes – Thomas Lovell Beddoes – Ralph Waldo Emerson – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – H. W. Longfellow – Edward Fitzgerald – Edgar Allan Poe – Alfred Tennyson – Robert Browning – Aubrey de Vere – Emily Brontë – A. H. Clough – Charles Kingsley – Herman Melville – Walt Whitman – Jean Ingelow – Matthew Arnold – William Cory – Coventry Patmore – William Allingham – Sydney Dobell – George Meredith – D. G. Rossetti – Emily Dickinson – Christina Rossetti – Richard Watson Dixon – William Morris – Warren de Tabley – Algernon Charles Swinburne – Thomas Hardy – Robert Bridges – Gerard Manley Hopkins – Andrew Lang – A. W. E. O’Shaughnessy – R. L. Stevenson – John Davidson – A. E. Housman – Francis Thompson – Mary E. Coleridge – Rudyard Kipling – W. B. Yeats – Ernest Dowson – Lionel Johnson – Laurence Binyon – Edwin Arlington Robinson – Hilaire Belloc – T. Sturge Moore – W. H. Davies – Ralph Hodgson – Walter de la Mare – G. K. Chesterton – Robert Frost – John Masefield – Edward Thomas – Harold Monro – Padraic Colum – James Stephens – James Elroy Flecker – D. H. Lawrence – Ezra Pound – Andrew Young – Siegfried Sassoon – Rupert Brooke – Edwin Muir – Edith Sitwell – T. S. Eliot – John Crowe Ransom – W. J. Turner – Dorothy Wellesley – V. Sackville-West – Wilfred Owen – Lilian Bowes Lyon – Robert Graves – Edmund Blunden – F. R. Higgins – William Soutar – Roy Campbell – C. Day-Lewis – John Betjeman – W. H. Auden – Louis MacNeice – Stephen Spender – George Barker – Laurie Lee – Henry Reed – Dylan Thomas – Alun Lewis – David Gascoyne – Sidney Keyes
Edited by John Press. The poets included were:
Dannie Abse – Fleur Adcock – William Alexander, Earl of Stirling – Kingsley Amis – Simon Armitage – Matthew Arnold – W. H. Auden – Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam – Anna Laetitia Barbauld – George Barker – Richard Barnfield – Francis Beaumont – Patricia Beer – John Betjeman – Laurence Binyon – Thomas Blackburn – Edmund Blunden – Eavan Boland – Ronald Bottrall – Robert Bridges – George Mackay Brown – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Robert Browning – Alan Brownjohn – Robert Burns – George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron – Norman Cameron – Roy Campbell – Thomas Campbell – Thomas Campion – Thomas Carew – Henry Carey – Lewis Carroll – Charles Causley – Colley Cibber – John Clare – Austin Clarke – Jack Clemo – Arthur Hugh Clough – Hartley Coleridge – Samuel Taylor Coleridge – John Collins – William Collins – Tony Connor – Henry Constable – David Constantine – Abraham Cowley – William Cowper – Richard Crashaw – Robert Crawford – Allan Cunningham – Samuel Daniel – George Darley – Donald Davie – W. H. Davies – Dick Davis – Thomas Dekker – Walter de la Mare – Lord De Tabley – Richard Watson Dixon – Keith Douglas – Ernest Dowson – Michael Drayton – William Drummond – John Dryden – Carol Ann Duffy – Helen Dunmore – Douglas Dunn – Lawrence Durrell – Thomas Stearns Eliot – Alistair Elliot – Jean Elliot – William Empson – D. J. Enright – Gavin Ewart – James Fenton – Roy Fisher – Edward FitzGerald – John Fletcher – Veronica Forrest-Thomson – John Fuller – Roy Fuller – Elizabeth Garrett – David Gascoyne – John Gay – Oliver Goldsmith – Robert Graham – Robert Graves – Thomas Gray – Thom Gunn – Michael Hamburger – Ian Hamilton – Thomas Hardy – Tony Harrison – Seamus Heaney – John Heath-Stubbs – George Herbert – Robert Herrick – Thomas Heywood – Geoffrey Hill – Ralph Hodgson – David Holbrook – Molly Holden – Thomas Hood – Gerard Manley Hopkins – A. E. Housman – Ted Hughes – T. E. Hulme – Elizabeth Jennings – Lionel Johnson – Ben Jonson – Patrick Kavanagh – John Keats – Sidney Keyes – Thomas Kinsella – Rudyard Kipling – James Kirkup – Charles Lamb – Walter Savage Landor – Philip Larkin – D. H. Lawrence – Edward Lear – Laurie Lee – Alun Lewis – Cecil Day-Lewis – Lady Anne Lindsay – Thomas Lodge – John Logan – Michael Longley – Richard Lovelace – Edward Lowbury – John Lyly – George MacBeth – Norman MacCaig – Hugh MacDiarmid – Louis MacNeice – Derek Mahon – Christopher Marlowe – Andrew Marvell – John Masefield – George Meredith – William Julius Mickle – John Milton – Thomas Moore – William Morris – Andrew Motion – Edwin Muir – Paul Muldoon – Carolina, Lady Nairne – Thomas Nash – Robert Nichols – Norman Nicholson – Bernard O'Donoghue – Wilfred Owen – Coventry Patmore – Tom Paulin – Ambrose Philips – Alexander Pope – Peter Porter – Jonathan Price – F. T. Prince – Matthew Prior – Craig Raine – Peter Redgrove – Henry Reed – Anne Ridler – Michael Riviere – W. R. Rodgers – Samuel Rogers – Isaac Rosenberg – Alan Ross – Christina Georgina Rossetti – Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Carol Rumens – Lawrence Sail – Siegfried Sassoon – Vernon Scannell – Sir Walter Scott – Peter Scupham – Sir Charles Sedley – George Sewell – William Shakespeare – Percy Bysshe Shelley – James Shirley – Sir Philip Sidney – Jon Silkin – C. H. Sisson – Edith Sitwell – Iain Crichton Smith – Stevie Smith – Robert Southey – Bernard Spencer – Stephen Spender – Edmund Spenser – Jon Stallworthy – Anne Stevenson – Sir John Suckling – Algernon Charles Swinburne – Joshua Sylvester – Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Dylan Thomas – Edward Thomas – R. S. Thomas – Francis Thompson – James Thomson (The Seasons) – James Thomson (B.V.) – Anthony Thwaite – Terence Tiller – Charles Tomlinson – The Shepherd Tony – Henry Vaughan – Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford – John Wain – Ted Walker – Edmund Waller – Vernon Watkins – John Webster – Robert Wells – Lawrence Whistler – Hugo Williams – George Wither – Charles Wolfe – William Wordsworth – Sir Henry Wotton – David Wright – Kit Wright – Sir Thomas Wyat – William Butler Yeats – Andrew Young
Martin Spevack, The Golden Treasury: 150 Years On, eBLJ 2012, Article 2, British Library.