Conclusion: Towards the Next Edition

Abstract

From what we have seen, it should be clear that for Yeats’s poems a truly “Definitive Edition” — as the term is understood by most readers — is impossible. The process of editing Yeats’s poems is one of gradual improvement, not one of sudden shifts from corrupt to perfect texts. Thus the only proper claim for the new Poems, one which I trust the work justifies, is that it is an advance on the previous editions. It will doubtless not be free of misprints; these can always be corrected in a new printing. More importantly, the new Poems is only as authoritative as the materials on which it is based. Given the lack of a comprehensive survey and catalogue of Yeats’s manuscripts, it is almost certain that I have neglected some relevant documents outside the major collections. Moreover, not all of Yeats’s manuscripts are in public collections, and some private collectors are not anxious to have their holdings known, examined, or reproduced.