'Errata' in the previous volumes are corrected: several thousand new
notes have been added, many of the old ones are entirely recast: the
changes of text, introduced by Wordsworth into the successive editions
of his Poems, have all been revised; new readings--derived from many MS.
sources--have been added: while the chronological order of the Poems
has, in several instances, been changed, in the light of fresh evidence.

The distinctive features of my edition of 1882-6 were stated in the
Preface to its first volume. So far as these features remain in the
present edition, they may be repeated as follows:

FIRST, the Poems are arranged in chronological order of composition, not
of publication. In all the collective editions issued by Wordsworth
during his lifetime, the arrangement of his poems in artificial groups,
based on their leading characteristics--a plan first adopted in
1815--was adhered to; although he not unfrequently transferred a poem
from one group to another. Here they are printed, with one or two
exceptions to be afterwards explained, in the order in which they were
written.

SECOND, the changes of text made by Wordsworth in the successive
editions of his Poems, are given in footnotes, with the dates of the
changes.

THIRD, suggested changes, written by the Poet on a copy of the
stereotyped edition of 1836-7--long kept at Rydal Mount, and bought,
after Mrs. Wordsworth's death, at the sale of a portion of the Library
at the Mount--are given in footnotes.

FOURTH, the Notes dictated by Wordsworth to Miss Isabella Fenwick--a