Lays of Ancient Rome: Essays and Poems (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lays of Ancient Rome: Essays and Poems Matthew Arnold and others attacked the Lays, judging them by the irrelevant standard of the highest flights of poetry. But judged for what they are, ballads, they are masterly, and deserved the immense popularity they enjoyed with two generations of Englishmen. In those days every schoolboy knew them, and many both young and old had them by heart. From them young people learnt to take pleasure in the sound and rhythm of verse, which helped them later to enjoy other greater poets. I do not think that the oblivion into which the Lays have since fallen has been an advantage to literature. 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.