The Greeks divided all poetry into three kinds,--lyric, epic, and
dramatic poetry, and there is no better general division. The lyric,
which is properly a song, expresses the transient feeling or mood of
the writer, and therefore is never very long. One must be sensitive to
the music of verse to care for a poem of this kind, because it tells no
story. Dryden's _Song for St. Cecilia's Day_ and Gray's _Elegy_, both
included in the present volume, are lyrics. Among the most beautiful
of English lyrics are Milton's _Lycidas_, Wordsworth's _Ode on
Intimations of Immortality_, and Shelley's _To a Skylark_ and
_Adonais_; while of American poems of the same kind none is nobler than
Lowell's _Commemoration Ode_. Short lyrics, among which are songs and
sonnets, can be found in the works of almost every poet of note,
whether English or American. Under the head of epic or narrative
poetry are included long productions like the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_
of Homer and the _Paradise Lost_ of Milton, and shorter poems, such as
Coleridge's _Ancient Mariner_ and _Longfellow's _Evangeline_. Indeed,
every piece of verse that tells a story, however short it may be,
belongs with the epics or narratives.
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