Excerpt from The Collected Poems of Isabella Valancy Crawford This volume contains eighty-six poems of superior merit, of which fifty-two appear for the first time in book form; the remainder appeared originally in a collection entitled "Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems," published by James Bain & Son, Toronto, in 1884. This unassuming volume, issued at the author's special request in cheap paper covers, attracted but little general interest, and, strange as it seems in view of the worth of its contents, has so meagre a sale as to entail financial lass. And yet the unpretentious little book won praise in high quarters. The London Athenceum compared certain of the poems with the work of standard English poets; the Spectator referred to Miss Crawford's blank verse as "indeed of no ordinary kind - vigorous, powerful"; the Illustrated London News described her verse as "abounding in noble sentiments, picturesque narration glowing language and pathetic touches combined with simple, impressive dignity"; the Graphic declared the humorous poems "equal to anything Colonel Hay had ever published," and characterized the book as "throughout a delightful one." Lord Dufferin's kindly tribute, in a letter written from the British Embassy at Constantinople, is reproduced in facsimile in the present volume. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.