Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes

Houghton Mifflin Co. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PUBLISHERS' NOTE "This Cambridge Edition of The Complete, Poetic Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes is the fourth in a series which includes the poems and dramas of Longfellow, Whittier, and Browning. It follows in its scheme the plan of the previous volumes. The editor was at some disadvantage in not being able to avail himself of the Life of Dr. Holmes which is now in preparation, but the frequent autobiographical passages in the writings of the author enabled him to illustrate a career devoid, even more than that of most poets, of adventure or dramatic incident. The head-notes, in like manner, could frequently be supplied from comment occur ring in the author's prose writings and in prefaces to separate publications of poems, but very many of the poems are so self-explanatory that the reader requires no introduction. The policy has been pursued, as in the former cases, of taking the latest collective edition issued in the poet's lifetime as the pattern to be followed both in text and in arrangement, but the opportunity has been used to include a few poems which were written after the latest edition appeared or had by some accident failed to receive the author's attention when he was making up his final collection; no attempt, however, has been made, in gathering the early poems, to go outside of the volumes in which they were originally included. It is assumed that Dr. Holmes when making up these volumes intentionally disregarded some of the poems scattered through periodicals. This is confirmed by the attitude which he took when his attention was called to the omission upon the occasion of the issue of the Riverside Edition. He refused to give them a refuge even in an appendix. The arrangement here is the same as in the Riverside Edition, with some slight modification, chiefly caused by the introduction of new material. In accordance with the plan of this series and with Dr. Holmes's original intention when the Riverside Edition was prepared, the Juvenilia are placed in an appendix in smaller type. Throughout the volume, whether in head-notes or in those placed in the appendix, the editor's work is distinguished by the use of brackets.