ISBN: 2940013693296

The chief want hitherto felt by students of the poetry of Thomson hasbeen a variorum edition of The Seasons. This I have endeavoured tosupply in the present edition.The first edition of W… More...

The chief want hitherto felt by students of the poetry of Thomson hasbeen a variorum edition of The Seasons. This I have endeavoured tosupply in the present edition.The first edition of Winter appeared in March, 1726, and consisted ofonly 405 lines. The second, published in the following June, containedmany variations, and increased the original text by 58 lines. I give areprint of the first Winter, accompanying it with the variations of thesecond. Three other editions prior to 1730 were reprints of the second.Summer was published in 1727; and consisted of 1, 146 lines. A secondedition, which appeared in the same year, was a reprint.Spring came out in 1728, and consisted of 1, 082 lines: it was followedin 1729 by a reprint.Autumn appeared in 1730 as part of the first edition of the collectedSeasons, and consisted of 1, 269 lines. The Hymn, numbering 121 lines,appeared at the same time.But in this first edition of the whole Seasons, which was issued in twoforms, quarto and octavo, Winter was augmented to 787 lines (781 in thequarto), Summer to 1, 206, Spring to 1, 087; and there were numerouschanges besides in the previous texts which are not indicated by mereincrement in the number of lines.Between 1730 and 1738 no change was made in the separate or collectedtexts of The Seasons. Thomson was busy at other work.In the edition of 1744 great changes were made--more especially inSummer and Winter--not merely by addition, but in other ways.Thomson revised the text of The Seasons for the last time in 1746,making a few alterations, and increasing the length of the poem as awhole--by 10 lines. The final result was a poem of 5, 541 lines, made upin the following way: Digital Content>E-books>Fiction>Fiction>Fiction, WDS Publishing Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940013693296

Poetical Works Poetical-Works~~James-Thomson Fiction>Fiction>Fiction NOOK Book (eBook), WDS Publishing