Page:Poetical works of William Blake (Sampson, 1913).djvu/24

 Bibliographical Introduction Blake's spelling, including that of proper names, has been modernized throughout, but with the necessary retention of his use of -d and -ed (here printed -'d and -èd) to distinguish between the elision or accentuation of the final syllable of the preterite, not always obvious on metrical grounds alone. No absolutely consistent practice has been followed with regard to capitalization, though majuscule initials have generally been retained or inserted in the case of symbolic terms, and occasionally, but to a lesser extent, in words or phrases in the lyrics for the sake of emphasis or artistic colour.

Blake's punctuation, always erratic and sometimes omitted altogether, is not the least of his editor's difficulties. Though taken into account in dealing with doubtful passages, the pointing of the original—whether his own as in the MS. and engraved books, or that of the typographer, as in The Poetical Sketches and French Revolution—has here been abandoned in favour of a more uniform and intelligible system.

The footnotes in the present edition are restricted to Blake's own earlier, variant, or cancelled readings, all of which are recorded in full; and, where necessary, to such short explanations of the changes found in the original MS. as may render clear the reasons which have guided me in adopting the version given in the text. I omit here altogether variorum readings—at best a painful necessity in my earlier book—while exegetical notes, even in the form of interpretative passages selected from Blake's own writings, fall outside the scope of this edition.

Before entering upon a detailed description of Blake's writings, it may be pertinent to call attention to the poet's attitude towards publication, since to this cause must be largely attributed his lack of influence upon his own and even the succeeding generation. There is ample evidence that the rare and extraordinary quality of Blake's poetry, or at least the lyrical part of it, met with due and immediate recognition from those of his contemporaries who had an opportunity of making acquaintance with his poems. That these readers and admirers were so few, and that Blake remained xvi