Poems That Have Helped Me

Among the things that you like to treasure there are two or three or perhaps a half dozen poems. Possibly they are poems you "learned by heart" when you went to school, or it may be that you found them among the "fugitive verses" which are printed from time to time in newspapers or religious publications.

It may be that you never have acknowledged even to yourself how much these poems, whether they are tucked away in your memory or in your pocketbook, have helped you. Nevertheless, they have served you in no small degree. They have encouraged you when you needed encouagement; they have been a solace to you in those moments when you felt the need of something to strengthen your faith or rekindle your hope.

The poems contained in this collection have in the most cases found favor with other compilers. With a few exceptions they have long been doing duty as "old favorites," to be found here and there in scrap books or buried within the depths of bulky volumes such as collectors generally deem it necessary to put forth. It is for the purpose of placing these masterpieces of the poets within easy reach of those who occasionally feel the need of encouragement and consolation that the present compilation is offered.