The first volume of this two-volume edition of MacDiarmid's Complete
Poems reprints the texts of the Penguin edition (1986), which was based
on the first edition of 1978, which MacDiarmid himself saw through the
press. Additional poems discovered since the first edition of 1978 are
included, and the additional text revised. MacDiarmid insisted that his
Complete Poems should be books of poetry, uncluttered by editorial
annotations and notes. Michael Grieve, the poet's son, and W. R. Aitken,
his bibliographer, have carefully followed his instructions, and
compiled an extensive glossary based on the earlier collections.