Grass of Parnassus

Many of the verses and translations in this volume were published first in Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (1872).  Though very sensible that they have the demerits of imitative and even of undergraduate rhyme, I print them again because people I like have liked them.  The rest are of different dates, and lack (though doubtless they need) the excuse of having been written, like some of the earlier pieces, during College Lectures.  I would gladly have added to this volume what other more or less serious rhymes I have written, but circumstances over which I have no control have bound them up with Ballades, and other toys of that sort.

It may be as well to repeat in prose, what has already been said in verse, that Grass of Parnassus, the pretty Autumn flower, grows in the marshes at the foot of the Muses’ Hill, and other hills, not at the top by any means.

Several of the versions from the Greek Anthology have been published in the Fortnightly Review, and the sonnet on Colonel Burnaby appeared in Punch.  These, with pieces from other serials, are reprinted by the courteous permission of the Editors.