The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 1 by William Wordsworth
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respectively 'The Thrush at Twilight', and 'The Thrush at Dawn'.
Possibly Wordsworth would have approved of both of those titles: but, that they are not his, should have been indicated. I do not think it wise, from an editorial point of view, even to print in a "Chronological Table"--as Professor Dowden has done, in his admirable Aldine edition--titles which were not Wordsworth's, without some indication to that effect. But, in the case of Selections from Wordsworth--such as those of Mr. Hawes Turner, and Mr. A. J. Symington,--every one must feel that the editor should have informed his readers 'when' the title was Wordsworth's, and 'when' it was his own coinage. In the case of a much greater man--and one of Wordsworth's most illustrious successors in the great hierarchy of English poesy, Matthew Arnold--it may be asked why should he have put 'Margaret, or the Ruined Cottage', as the title of a poem written in 1795-7, when Wordsworth never once published it under that name? It was an extract from the first book of 'The Excursion'--written, it is true, in these early years,--but only issued as part of the latter poem, first published in 1814. The question of the number, the character, and the length of the Notes, which a wise editor should append to the works of a great poet, (or to any classic), is perhaps still 'sub judice'. My own opinion is that, in all editorial work, the notes should be illustrative rather than critical; and that they should only bring out those points, which the ordinary reader of the text would not readily understand, if the poems were not annotated. For this reason, topographical, historical, and antiquarian notes are almost essential. The Notes which Wordsworth himself wrote to his Poems, are of unequal length and merit. It was perhaps necessary for him to write--at all events it is easy to |
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