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.
1853-1854
Milton's Poetical Works (2 volumes)
Thomson's Poetical Works
The Poetical Works of George Herbert
Young's Night Thoughts
The Poetical Works of Goldsmith, Collins, and T. Warton
1854
The Poetical Works of William Cowper (2 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler (2 volumes)
The Poetical Works of William Shenstone
The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer (complete text at Gutenberg)
1855
The 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 Churchill
The Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett (complete text at Gutenberg)
1856
The 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 Grahame
The Poetical Works of William Shakspeare and the Earl of Surrey
1857
The 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 Denham
The Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw and Quarles' Emblems
1858
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by Thomas Percy (3 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior
The Poetical Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt
The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green
1859
The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser (5 volumes)
The Poetical Works of Joseph Addison; Gay's Fables; Somerville's Chase
1860
Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets — volume I (complete text at Gutenberg)
First Period
Second 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)
