This is a revised and augmented “New Edition” of Poems
Bryson
Bryson
DGR seems not to have mentioned the idea of this edition to his brother until
15 December 1880, when WMR notes in his diary for that day: “His
volume of Poems being out of print, he has some idea of
reissuing it, along with all his poems subsequently composed, forming
probably half as much again.” In fact, DGR must have been
formulating general plans for a new edition throughout 1879, when he was
seeking to obtain some copies of his 1873 Ballads and Sonnets
The large amount of verse eventually led to the decision to issue two
volumes, one this “New Edition”, the other a volume
containing the bulk of the new writing DGR had produced. The initial plan
(in January 1881) was to include the augmented Poems and Ballads, Second Series
This New Edition is much less personal than the 1870 volume, not least
because of the decision to remove Ballads and Sonnets
Printer's copy for this book was a set of
DGR wrote to his publisher Ellis on 30 April 1881 that “we had
better at once begin reprinting the old vol: with Strangeways [i.e., DGR's
1870 volume], that it may come out almost immediately after the new one
[i.e., the Ballads and Sonnets volume, the printing of
which had begun several weeks before and was still in train]. The whole copy
is ready. Fifty-six pages will be removed from the old vol: and quite as
much substituted to replace them— I mean as much if printed on
the system of the old vol: which is closer than the new. Thus I suppose we
had better print it as before, as it would otherwise come very
thick.” (Correspondence
Correspondence
Correspondence
As we see from the multiple surviving copies of the book's signatures, DGR had at least two copies printed of each signature, so that he told Watts-Dunton in a letter of 21 May that he could give him “an entire first set of the volume” when he would see him for dinner of 25 May. DGR also had a set of proofs of this volume made for his brother, who helped with the press correction for both volumes.
Though ready well before it finally first appeared on 10 Novemeber, the book
was held back by DGR because he did not want it to appear before the Ballads and Sonnets
DGR's correspondence between 7 April and 25 May contains the basic
extra-textual information about the book's printing process (see the letters
in Correspondence
Victorian Poetry
Ballads and Sonnets and Poems
(1881)”Victorian Poetry