The field of Catalan lyric poetry is wide and varied, and its history has been a long one. This particular anthology was compiled in order to bring together its essentials rather than to provide a representative selection; my criterion was personal throughout, my choice being based upon my own reactions to the poems I read. I excluded such whole periods and genres as could make no contribution to the essential message which any poetry contains for all mankind, in so far as it is the synthesis of any people's personality. This anthology became more homogeneous as a result of my approach. It gained, indeed, a certain timelessness, for a living community of experience became apparent in poems from every age. - Introduction.