My own text of the poems has been prepared from transcripts of the MS. Book made by Mr. White for the present edition. These transcripts, which faithfully reproduce the relative positions of poems or stanzas on the original page, with all Blake's deletions, insertions, and corrections, together with his marks of transposition and successive numerations of stanzas and lines (without careful observance of which many of the poems would be unintelligible), possess the advantage of having been made by a Blake student thoroughly familiar with his author's handwriting and mode of composition. The aid of the magnifying glass or of photography has also been resorted to, and any obscure passage submitted to minute scrutiny.
From these transcripts copies of the poems have been made by the present editor, and collated with the chief existing texts, any differences of reading being again referred to Mr. White for further examination. Some idea of the care bestowed upon this part of the work may be gathered from the fact that in more than one instance the original transcription of a single page has cost Mr. White four or five hours' close labour. Similar care has been given by the editor to unravelling Blake's method of building up a poem, enabling the reader to follow the same process by reference to the notes. The proofs have lastly been read by Mr. White, and the text and notes again checked from the original manuscript. This edition therefore, while it serves every purpose of a facsimile, presents he matter in a much clearer and more intelligible form.
Not the least important result of the plan here pursued — besides the light which it throws upon Blake's self-criticism apparent in his successive changes — is the new form in which a number of the most familiar poems now appear. One may hesitate to change the generally received line 'Sweet morning leads me on' (xliii) to 'Sweet mercy leads me on,' yet the latter is not only as Blake wrote it, but also imparts a deeper meaning to the poem. The lyric 'To a lovely mirtle bound' (MS. Book xiii, D. G. Rossetti's 'In a Myrtle Shade') gains by the recovery of Blake's final version. Blake's final readings, whether for the worse or for the better, are here uniformly adopted. Instances will be noted where, as in 'Cupid' (MS. Book cxv), these changes are the reverse of improvements, or where the MS. version of some of the Songs of Experience may be preferred to the text of the engraved book.
