Abstract
Items 209 and 210 in Allan Wade’s A Bibliography of the Writings of W. B. Yeats, describing the two-volume Poems issued by Macmillan, London, in the autumn of 1949, are headed by the magisterial phrase “The Definitive Edition”.1 For reasons that will become clear, I do not believe that a truly “Definitive Edition” of Yeats’s poems is or will be possible. I am quite certain, however, that the 1949 Poems is defective in contents, in ordering, and in text. As we proceed, I shall therefore also offer my reasons for believing that the new edition of The Poems of W. B. Yeats, to which this study is a companion, is a step closer to that archetypal, hence mythical, “Definitive Edition”.2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allan Wade, A Bibliography of the Writings of W. B. Yeats, 3rd ed., rev. Russell K. Alspach (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1968 ), pp. 206–7.
The Poems of W. B. Yeats, a New Edition ed. Richard J. Finneran (London and New York: Macmillan, 1983).
Copyright information
© 1983 Richard J. Finneran
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Finneran, R.J. (1983). Prolegomena: The Myth of the Definitive Edition. In: Editing Yeats’s Poems. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17086-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17086-9_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-17088-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17086-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)