AmblesideOnline Poetry Anthologies!

[AnneWhite]

Thank you for these!!

I had one little question because I noticed the front covers say "edited and annotated". Does that mean the poems have actually been edited?

The "edited" refers mostly to the selection and arrangement.

However, a few of the poems are given in a shortened version, either because of length or because of (in a very few cases) a problematic stanza. In that case, our titles include the word "from." 

Also, a few of the poets, such as Emily Dickinson, were already "edited" (by someone else) because there were multiple versions of some of their poems. Tennyson, for example, is often pre-edited in anthologies, with changed spelling and punctuation. We tried to track down the "truest" versions we could, but sometimes we just had to pick one and go with it.

[Mscott07]

I see. What do you mean by problematic stanza? Like not for kids?

I’m just thinking if I use an anthology or find the poems online instead what might the differences be. I was hoping there were no editing of poems, unless there is some reason I’m not understanding. Shouldn’t we be reading these in their original form??


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[AnneWhite]

Problematic more as in using language that is now considered offensive, perhaps in a less-essential stanza of an otherwise wonderful poem. Our editing, though, was almost always simply for length; and any poems that we shortened or used as excerpts have been marked as such. You are of course free to read the full poems from other collections as you consider them appropriate.

[Mscott07]

Thank you Anne. I just wanted to be sure I understood if there were actual changes to words so I can look up the actual poem and compare and decide. Is it notated by the stanza that it has been changed?


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[AnneWhite]

Thank you Anne. I just wanted to be sure I understood if there were actual changes to words so I can look up the actual poem and compare and decide. Is it notated by the stanza that it has been changed?


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No, not by the stanza, that would have been awkward.

*Most* of the poems included are in their original format and length, especially for the upper years.