ABSTRACT
The choice of text for each of the poems selected for inclusion in this volume has been made on the basis of a study of its textual history and a comparison of editions printed during the author's lifetime, along with relevant manuscripts, periodical appearances, contemporary anthologies, and posthumous editions. In general, each text is from the earliest book edition prepared with the author's participation; revised editions are sometimes followed, in light of the degree of authorial supervision and the stage of the writer's career at which the revisions were made, but the preference has been for the authorially approved book version closest to the date of composition. For some popular poems widely disseminated in periodicals, however, the early periodical versions have been preferred; for example, Francis Scott Key's late revisions to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in his collected poems have been rejected in favor of the earlier periodical version (printed here as "Defence of Fort McHenry"). Manuscript sources (such as those for Thoreau's "Guido's Aurora," "Music," and "Inspiration") have been used only when no printed text appears to be authoritative.
