Son of the historian Sir Francis Palgrave (1788–1861), Palgrave was educated at Charterhouse and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was part of the circle of Matthew Arnold and Arthur Hugh Clough. He spent many years in the education department of the civil service and from 1885 to 1895 was professor of poetry at the University of Oxford. He was also for many years the art critic of the Saturday Review. He published a volume of verse, Idyls and Songs, in 1854, which was followed by The Visions of England (1881) and Amenophis (1892). His greatest service to poetry, however, was his compilation of The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics (1861), a comprehensive, well-chosen anthology, carefully arranged in its sequence. Palgrave's choice of poems was made in consultation with Tennyson. The Anthology had great influence on the poetic taste of several generations and was of particular value in popularizing Wordsworth. The original selections were modified in later editions.