The Library Edition of the British Poets was the title given to a 48-volume edition of the works of British poets, published between 1853 and 1860 by James Nichol of Edinburgh, edited, with lives of the authors, critical dissertations and explanatory notes, by the Rev. George Gilfillan. All the poets included were dead by the date of publication, and nearly all were born before 1770. The English Romantic poets were thus omitted from the collection.
Publication took place in issues of six volumes, each issue costing one guinea by subscription, as follows.
1853-1854Milton's Poetical Works (2 volumes)
Thomson's Poetical WorksThe Poetical Works of George HerbertYoung's Night ThoughtsThe Poetical Works of Goldsmith, Collins, and T. Warton1854The Poetical Works of William Cowper (2 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler (2 volumes)
The Poetical Works of William ShenstoneThe Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer (complete text at Gutenberg)1855The Poetical Works of John Dryden (2 volumes)
The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles (2 volumes) (text of volume 1 at Gutenberg)
The Poetical Works of Charles ChurchillThe Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett (complete text at Gutenberg)1856The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (2 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope (2 volumes) (text of volume 1 at Gutenberg) (text of volume 2 at Gutenberg)
The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James GrahameThe Poetical Works of William Shakspeare and the Earl of Surrey1857The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott (3 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside (complete text at Gutenberg)
The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John DenhamThe Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw and Quarles' Emblems1858Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by Thomas Percy (3 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Matthew PriorThe Poetical Works of Sir Thomas WyattThe Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green1859The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser (5 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Joseph Addison; Gay's Fables; Somerville's Chase1860Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume I (complete text at Gutenberg)First PeriodSecond Period — From Spenser to Dryden
Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume II (complete text at Gutenberg)Second Period — From Spenser to Dryden (continued)
Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume III (complete text at Gutenberg)Third Period — From Dryden to Cowper
The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, by Thomas Tyrwhitt (3 volumes)
