13 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a short poem hold—a love, a loss, a landscape, a lifetime of feeling?
In The Golden Treasury, Francis Turner Palgrave gathers short English poems that carry a single feeling or thought. Love, grief, nature, time and death give these songs and lyrics their subjects. The collection moves from the age of Shakespeare to the early nineteenth century, inviting you to pause over each voice rather than hurry through.
The collection guides the journey through Elizabethan song, Milton's graver seventeenth century, the quiet inward lyrics of the eighteenth century, and the Romantic poets. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats appear in the final book. Along the way, Palgrave's choices reveal how one editor's taste shapes the poetry readers come to know and love.
What you’ll discover
- The Elizabethan voice Enter the age of Shakespeare through short poems full of song.
- Milton's graver world Meet the more serious mood of the seventeenth century, with Milton at its heart.
- Quiet inward lyrics Discover eighteenth-century poems where polished speech gives room to private thought and feeling.
- The Romantic poets Read Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats among poems of nature, love and loss.
- A rhythm to linger over Choose one poem, read it twice aloud, and let its rhythm settle.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love poems made for reading aloud, songs of love, time, birds and seasons, and anyone who wants one volume that carries the voices of Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth and Keats.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- One feeling holds each poem together
- Early songs make nature sing
- Love answers the passing of time
- Milton widens the lyric’s reach
- Restraint can carry strong feeling
- Plain songs give sorrow a voice
- Ordinary sights carry deep meaning
- New voices give song fresh fire
- Each song joins a larger pattern
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The Golden Treasury
by Francis Turner Palgrave · 1861
Four books of short English lyrics lead from Shakespeare's fairy songs to Keats on a nightingale.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What do a fairy sleeping in a cowslip's bell, a shepherd begging his love to come away, and a poet calling to a nightingale have in common? They all live in one small, carefully chosen book.
The Golden Treasury at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h4 h 45 min fast, 7 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 85,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1861by Francis Turner Palgrave
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lyric is one feeling kept whole
Palgrave wanted a small shelf of English songs and short poems that a reader could trust from first line to last. Everything in it is a lyric, meaning a poem built around one feeling or one moment.
That rule explains what is missing. There are no long stories in verse and no plays, only pieces short enough to hold in the mind. He even trims a few poems, dropping a stanza here and there to keep the whole sweet and even.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1861
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Palgrave, Francis Turner. The Golden Treasury. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-treasury.
Palgrave, F. T. (2026). The golden treasury. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-treasury (Original work published 1861)
Palgrave, Francis Turner. The Golden Treasury. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-treasury.
@book{palgrave2026golden,
author = {Palgrave, Francis Turner},
title = {The Golden Treasury},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-golden-treasury},
note = {First published 1861}
}
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What is The Golden Treasury about?
It is an anthology of English lyric poems, meaning short songs and poems built on one feeling. Palgrave arranged them in four books from Elizabethan times to the early nineteenth century, with notes and short summaries of each period.
Who compiled The Golden Treasury and when was it first published?
Francis Turner Palgrave compiled it, and it was first published in 1861. He chose the poems, arranged them in four books by period, and wrote the notes that explain old words, myths and his opinions.
Which poets are in The Golden Treasury?
Poets include Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Donne, Herrick and Marvell in the early books, then Milton, Dryden, Gray, Collins, Burns and Cowper. Book Four brings Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats, along with many anonymous songs.
The author
Francis Turner Palgrave
1824–1897 · English poet and critic
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) was an English poet, critic and editor. He was born in Great Yarmouth and died in London. He edited The Golden Treasury, a collection of English poetry first published in 1861. He also wrote poetry and was Professor of Poetry at Oxford from 1885 to 1895.
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