THE POETICAL WORKS OF

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH,

115,040 JAN 14 1902

General Liwia y Oystem
University of Wisconsin - Madison
728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706-1494
U.S.A.

The eighth volume of this edition completes the Works
of the poet. As there is no prefatory note to volume
seven, the extension of the edition to nine, instead of eight
volumes may now be explained.

It was originally intended that the Poetical Works should
be completed in seven volumes, and that the eighth should
be entirely devoted to the Life of Wordsworth, and a Critical
Essay; but it has been found impossible, even by omitting
editorial notes and other illustrative matter—as well as the
prose fragments and the indexes—to condense what remained
of the poems into a single volume that did not greatly exceed
the others in size. In these circumstances it seemed best
to close the seventh volume with the poems belonging
to the year 1834; and to add the prose fragments, two
indexes, and a new chronological table of the poems to the
eighth

The chronological list previously given was necessarily incomplete, important sources of information having been discovered since it was published. That which is now published may not be absolutely accurate. There is no such thing as finality in such a matter—as fresh documentary evidence may fix some dates that are uncertain, and correct others that seem reliable, but it is believed that no important error will be found in the present list.