Page:The poetical works of William Blake; a new and verbatim text from the manuscript engraved and letterpress originals (1905).djvu/13

Rh possible, should have considered himself justified in making grammatical and other changes in the endeavour to remove what he regarded as blemishes. Yet, even in this case, every lover of Blake must feel that the intended emendations not only are made on no consistent principle, but are often destructive of the happy grace and artless simplicity of the original. No equally valid defence can be made for the perversions of more recent editors, especially if new readings, which can hardly be regarded as improvements, are found in conjunction with professions of scrupulous regard for textual fidelity. Reference to the variorum readings given in the footnotes to the present edition will show the extent to which this passion for emendation has been carried. It will be seen that scarcely a single poem or even epigram has been suffered to remain as Blake wrote it. Words and phrases are changed, stanzas are transposed or omitted, and readings destructive of sense, syntax, and prosody are introduced without obvious reason. Unauthorized titles are added which, as in the case of 'Broken Love,' impart to the poem a meaning undreamt of by its author. Two or more lyrics are printed as one, and vice versa. In one instance a new piece has been created out of three shorter poems welded together by a line which is apparently the composition of the ingenious and modest editor. Blake's text has, in short, become a sort of poor palimpsest where each new owner has overwritten his own poetry. Liberties such as no one would venture on with Burns or Shelley, are everywhere taken with Blake by those who still profess their admiration for his 'exquisite metrical gift and rightness of form.' It is not a little bewildering to find one great poet and critic extolling Blake for the 'glory of metre' and 'sonorous beauty of lyrical work' in the two opening lyrics of the Songs of Experience, while he introduces into the five short stanzas quoted no less than seven emendations of his own, involving additions of syllables and important changes of meaning.