| Introductory Essay |
| | An Interpreter of Life by Lyman Abbott (1835–1922) |
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| I. Disappointment in Love |
| | The Course of True Love by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Lady Clara Vere de Vere by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Linda to Hafed by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | “Love not” by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan) Norton (1808–1877) |
| | The Princess by Björnstjerne Björnson (1832–1910) |
| | Unrequited Love by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Fair Ines by Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | The Banks o’ Doon by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | Sonnet: “With how sad steps” by Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) |
| | Agatha by Alfred Austin (1835–1913) |
| | The Sun-Dial by Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | Locksley Hall by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Song: “A weary lot is thine, fair maid” by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | Auld Robin Gray by Lady Anne (Lindsay) Barnard (1750–1825) |
| | To a Portrait by Arthur Symons (1865–1945) |
| | Maud Muller by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) |
| | The Palm and the Pine by Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) |
| | Cumnor Hall by William Julius Mickle (1735–1788) |
| | “Waly, waly”—Anonymous |
| | Lady Ann Bothwell’s Lament—Anonymous |
| | “My heid is like to rend, Willie” by William Motherwell (1797–1835) |
| | Ashes of Roses by Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863–1953) |
| | A Woman’s Love by John Hay (1838–1905) |
| | The Shadow Rose by Robert Cameron Rogers (1862–1912) |
| | “Has summer come without the rose?” by Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy (1844–1881) |
| | The Dirty Old Man by William Allingham (1824–1889) |
| | Home, Wounded by Sydney Dobell (1824–1874) |
| | Divided by Jean Ingelow (1820–1897) |
| | To Diane de Poitiers by Clément Marot (1496–1544) |
| | The Spinner by Mary Ainge De Vere (Madeline Bridges) |
| | “Take, O, take those lips away” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and John Fletcher (1579–1625) |
| | Woman’s Inconstancy by Sir Robert Ayton (1570–1638) |
| | Time’s Revenge by Agathias (c. 530–582) |
| | The Dream by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | “Alas! how light a cause” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | Blighted Love by Luís de Camões (c. 1524–1580) |
| | The Nevermore by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| | The Portrait by E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) |
| | Only a Woman by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887) |
| | Dorothy in the Garret by John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916) |
| | The Nun and Harp by Harriet Prescott Spofford (1835–1921) |
| | Fidelity in Doubt by Guiraud Le Roux (1110–1147) |
| | Faith by Frances Anne Kemble (1809–1893) |
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| II. Parting and Absence |
| | Parting by Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) |
| | To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace (1618–1658) |
| | Good-bye—Anonymous |
| | “Ae fond kiss, and then we sever” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | “O, my Luve ’s like a red, red rose” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | “Maid of Athens, ere we part” by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | Song of the Young Highlander by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | Black-Eyed Susan by John Gay (1685–1732) |
| | The Parting Lovers—Anonymous |
| | Lochaber No More by Allan Ramsay (1686–1758) |
| | “As slow our ship” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | Qua Cursum Ventus by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) |
| | “Adieu, adieu! my native shore” by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | Farewell to his Wife by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | “Come, let us kisse and parte” by Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | “Farewell! thou art too dear” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Kathleen Mavourneen by Louisa Macartney Crawford (1790–1858) |
| | “We parted in silence” by Louisa Macartney Crawford (1790–1858) |
| | Auf Wiedersehen by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | Palinode by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | “Farewell!—but whenever” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | Parting of Hector and Andromache by Homer (fl. 850 B.C.) |
| | Hector to His Wife by Homer (fl. 850 B.C.) |
| | To Lucasta by Richard Lovelace (1618–1658) |
| | To Her Absent Sailor by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) |
| | “I love my Jean” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | Jeanie Morrison by William Motherwell (1797–1835) |
| | “O, saw ye bonnie Leslie?” by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | The Rustic Lad’s Lament in the Town by David Macbeth Moir (1798–1851) |
| | Absence by Frances Anne Kemble (1809–1893) |
| | Robin Adair by Lady Caroline Keppel (c. 1734–1769) |
| | Daisy by Francis Thompson (1859–1907) |
| | Song of Egla by Maria Gowen Brooks (Maria del Occidente) (1794?–1845) |
| | “What ails this heart o’ mine?” by Susanna Blamire (1747–1794) |
| | Love’s Memory by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Absence—Anonymous |
| | Thinkin’ Long by Anna MacManus (Ethna Carbery) (1866–1902) |
| | “Tears, idle tears” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | The Old Familiar Faces by Charles Lamb (1775–1834) |
| | “Come to me, dearest” by Joseph Brenan (1828–1857) |
| | The Wife to her Husband—Anonymous |
| | My Old Kentucky Home by Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1864) |
| | Old Folks at Home by Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1864) |
| | The Present Good by William Cowper (1731–1800) |
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| III. Adversity |
| | Man by Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | The World by Francis Bacon (1561–1626) |
| | “Moan, moan, ye dying gales” by Henry Neele (1798–1828) |
| | The Vanity of the World by Francis Quarles (1592–1644) |
| | “Blow, blow, thou winter wind” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | The Wail of Prometheus Bound by Æschylus (c. 525–456 B.C.) |
| | Samson on His Blindness by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | Lines: “My prime of youth is but a frost of cares” by Chidiock Tichborne (1563–1586) |
| | “Hence, all ye vain delights” by John Fletcher (1579–1625) |
| | The Fall of Cardinal Wolsey by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | The Approach of Age by George Crabbe (1754–1832) |
| | Stanzas Written in Dejection near Naples by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
| | Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats (1795–1821) |
| | Perished by Mary Louise Ritter |
| | Latest Verses by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | A Doubting Heart by Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–1864) |
| | The Voiceless by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) |
| | A Lament by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
| | “What can an old man do but die?” by Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | “Over the hill to the poor-house” by Will Carleton (1845–1912) |
| | Old by Ralph Hoyt (1806–1878) |
| | The Last Leaf by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) |
| | The Last Leaf by Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837) |
| | The Old Vagabond by Pierre Jean de Béranger (1780–1857) |
| | The Beggar by Thomas Moss (1740–1808) |
| | A Rough Rhyme on a Rough Matter by Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) |
| | “They are dear fish to me”—Anonymous |
| | Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother by Amanda M. Edmond (1824–1862) |
| | The Song of the Shirt by Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | The Pauper’s Drive by Thomas Noel (1799–1861) |
| | Unseen Spirits by Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867) |
| | Beautiful Snow by John Whitaker Watson (1824–1890) |
| | London Churches by Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (1809–1885) |
| | The Bridge of Sighs by Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | Guilty, or Not Guilty?—Anonymous |
| | The Female Convict by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) |
| | Hopeless Grief by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
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| IV. Comfort and Cheer |
| | To Myself by Paul Fleming (1609–1640) |
| | The Flower by George Herbert (1593–1633) |
| | Sonnet: To Cyriack Skinner by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | Invictus by William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) |
| | Afar in the Desert by Thomas Pringle (1789–1834) |
| | “Sad is our youth, for it is ever going” by Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) |
| | My Wife and Child by Henry R. Jackson (1820–1898) |
| | The Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | “Times go by turns” by Robert Southwell (c. 1561–1595) |
| | Compensation by Christopher Pearse Cranch (1813–1892) |
| | The Changed Cross by Mrs. Charles Hobart |
| | Something Beyond by Mary (Clemmer) (Ames) Hudson (1839–1884) |
| | Despondency Rebuked by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) |
| | God’s Sure Help in Sorrow by Anton Ulrich (1633–1714) |
| | Sonnet: “While yet these tears have power to flow” by Louise Labé (c. 1520–1566) |
| | Waiting by John Burroughs (1837–1921) |
| | Aunt Phillis’s Guest by William Channing Gannett (1840–1923) |
| | “Ilka blade o’ grass keps its ain drap o’ dew” by James Ballantine (1808–1877) |
| | Unchanging by Friedrich von Bodenstedt (1819–1892) |
| | I Hold Still by Julius Sturm (1816–1896) |
| | The Good, Great Man by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | “When my ship comes in” by Robert Jones Burdette (1844–1914) |
| | Never Despair by William Smith O’Brien (1803–1864) |
| | The Saddest Fate—Anonymous |
| | The Song of the Savoyards by Henry Ames Blood (1836–1900) |
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| V. Death and Bereavement |
| | Life by Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) (1787–1874) |
| | Soliloquy on Death by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Sic Vita by Henry King (1592–1669) |
| | Death the Leveller by James Shirley (1596–1666) |
| | Virtue Immortal by George Herbert (1593–1633) |
| | Man’s Mortality by Simon Wastell (c. 1566–1632) |
| | Mortality by William Knox (1789–1825) |
| | The Hour of Death by Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793–1835) |
| | The Term of Death by Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt (1836–1919) |
| | A Picture of Death by Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | The Two Mysteries by Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905) |
| | Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | A Morning Thought by Edward Rowland Sill (1841–1887) |
| | Now and Afterwards by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887) |
| | The Grave of Sophocles by Simmias of Rhodes (fl. 300 B.C.) |
| | Inscription on Melrose Abbey—Anonymous |
| | On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey by Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) |
| | Elegy written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray (1716–1771) |
| | God’s Acre by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | Sleepy Hollow by William Ellery Channing (1818–1901) |
| | The Quaker Graveyard by Silas Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) |
| | Greenwood Cemetery by Crammond Kennedy (1842–1918) |
| | The Dead by Mathilde Blind (1841–1896) |
| | On a Grave at Grindelwald by Frederic William Henry Myers (1843–1901) |
| | The Emigrant Lassie by John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895) |
| | The Old Sexton by Park Benjamin (1809–1864) |
| | The First Snow-Fall by James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | The Morning-Glory by Maria (White) Lowell (1821–1853) |
| | The Widow’s Mite by Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821–1895) |
| | “Are the children at home?” by Margaret Elizabeth Sangster (1838–1912) |
| | Jim’s Kids by Eugene Field (1850–1895) |
| | The May Queen by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | On Anne Allen by Edward Fitzgerald (1809–1883) |
| | Sonnet: “Yea, Love is strong as life” by Lady Blanche Elizabeth Fitzroy Lindsay (1844–1912) |
| | Jeune Fille et Jeune Fleur by François-René vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) |
| | The Death-Bed by Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | A Death-Bed by James Aldrich (1810–1856) |
| | Requiescat by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) |
| | “The Unillumined Verge” by Robert Bridges (1844–1930) |
| | Coronach by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | Evelyn Hope by Robert Browning (1812–1889) |
| | Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) |
| | “Thy braes were bonny” by John Logan (1748–1788) |
| | “Farewell to thee, Araby’s daughter” by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) |
| | “Softly woo away her breath” by Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) (1787–1874) |
| | “She died in beauty” by Charles Doyne Sillery (1807–1837) |
| | The Death of Minnehaha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | Mother and Poet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Highland Mary by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | Fair Helen—Anonymous |
| | “Oh that ’t were possible” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Too Late by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887) |
| | After Summer by Philip Bourke Marston (1850–1887) |
| | Lament for Heliodore by Meleager of Gadara (1st Century B.C.) |
| | On the Death of Her Brother, Francis I. by Marguerite de Valois (1553–1615) |
| | To Mary in Heaven by Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | Minstrel’s Song by Thomas Chatterton (17527#150;1770) |
| | The Passage by Ludwig Uhland (1787–1862) |
| | Lament of the Irish Emigrant by Helen Selina, Lady Dufferin Sheridan (1807–1867) |
| | “Home they brought her warrior dead” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | The King of Denmark’s Ride by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan) Norton (1808–1877) |
| | Grief by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
| | Selections from “In Memoriam” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Après by Arthur Joseph Munby (1828–1910) |
| | “The fairest thing in mortal eyes” by Charles, Duke of Orléans (1394–1465) |
| | “Break, break, break” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | Lavender—Anonymous |
| | What of the Darkness? by Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947) |
| | Van Elsen by Frederick George Scott (1861–1944) |
| | “When lilacs last in the door-yard bloomed” by Walt Whitman (1819–1892) |
| | “If I should die to-night” by Belle E. Smith |
| | Awakening by Washington Gladden (1836–1918) |
| | “Beyond the smiling and the weeping” by Horatius Bonar (1808–1889) |
| | The Land o’ the Leal by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne (1766–1845) |
| | Antony and Cleopatra by William Haines Lytle (1826–1863) |
| | Habeas Corpus by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) |
| | “Farewell, Life” by Thomas Hood (1799–1845) |
| | For Annie by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) |
| | Thalatta! Thalatta! by Joseph Brownlee Brown (1824–1888) |
| | The Sleep by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | Prospice by Robert Browning (1812–1889) |
| | “I would not live alway” by William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796–1877) |
| | Farewell by Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | Love and Death by Margaret Deland (1857–1945) |
| | To Death—Anonymous |
| | “Asleep! asleep!” by Lucy Ann Bennett (1850–1927) |
| | Rest by Mary Woolsey Howland (1832–1864) |
| | In Harbor by Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886) |
| | Hush! by Julia C. R. Dorr (1825–1913) |
| | Life by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743–1825) |
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| VI. Consolation |
| | The Angel of Patience by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) |
| | “They are all gone” by Henry Vaughan (1621–1695) |
| | The Bottom Drawer by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (1831–1919) |
| | Over the River by Nancy Amelia Woodbury Priest Wakefield (1836–1870) |
| | Grief for the Dead—Anonymous |
| | The Two Waitings by John White Chadwick (1840–1904) |
| | For Charlie’s Sake by John Williamson Palmer (1825–1906) |
| | Watching for Papa—Anonymous |
| | My Child by John Pierpont (1785–1866) |
| | Song: “She ’s somewhere in the sunlight strong” by Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947) |
| | The Reaper and the Flowers by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | “Only a year” by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) |
| | Blessed are They that Mourn by William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | De Profundis by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | “Blessed are They” by Rossiter Worthington Raymond (1840–1918) |
| | Lines to the Memory of “Annie” by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) |
| | Death in Youth by Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) |
| | In Memoriam F. A. S. by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) |
| | Tears by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | Resignation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | Christus Consolator by Rossiter Worthington Raymond (1840–1918) |
| | Comfort by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | The Secret of Death by Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) |
| | Peace—Anonymous |
| | Footsteps of Angels by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | “Happy are the dead” by Henry Vaughan (1621–1695) |
| | “The green grass under the snow” by Annie A. Preston |
| | The Conqueror’s Grave by William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) |
| | “Thou art gone to the grave” by Reginald Heber (1783–1826) |
| | Lycidas by John Milton (1608–1674) |
| | After Death in Arabia by From the Arabic |
| | “It is not death to die” by George Washington Bethune (1805–1862) |
| | “There is no death” by J. L. McCreery |
| | Going and Coming by Edward A. Jenks (1830–1908) |
| | Blind by Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) |
| | The Death of Death by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) |
