POSTSCRIPT IN SECOND EDITION OF 1839.
24 lines✦
n revising this new edition, and carefully consulting Shelley’sscattered and confused papers, I found a few fragments which hadhitherto escaped me, and was enabled to complete a few poems hithertoleft unfinished. What at one time escapes the searching eye, dimmed byits own earnestness, becomes clear at a future period. By the aid of afriend, I also present some poems complete and correct which hithertohave been defaced by various mistakes and omissions. It was suggestedthat the poem “To the Queen of my Heart” was falsely attributed toShelley. I certainly find no trace of it among his papers; and, asthose of his intimate friends whom I have consulted never heard of it,I omit it. Two poems are added of some length, “Swellfoot the Tyrant” and “PeterBell the Third”. I have mentioned the circumstances under which theywere written in the notes; and need only add that they are conceivedin a very different spirit from Shelley’s usual compositions. They arespecimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they adopt afamiliar style and homely imagery, there shine through the radiance ofthe poet’s imagination the earnest views and opinions of thepolitician and the moralist. At my request the publisher has restored the omitted passages of“Queen Mab”. I now present this edition as a complete collection of myhusband’s poetical works, and I do not foresee that I can hereafteradd to or take away a word or line. Putney, November 6, 1839.
✦