The Publication History of MacLeish's Longer Poems

Abstract

M~ANY poets have shaped and reshaped image of their public career and of their poetic identity, what Wayne Booth calls the career-author,1 by ordering and reordering their collected works. Archibald MacLeish published and republished his longer poems in varying forms and formats for just such purposes. From Happy Marriage (1924) to Songs for Eve (1954), with one exception, he followed conventional pattern of first publishing longer poem separately or with a few other poems and then reprinting it in some form in a larger collection. one exception, Einstein, appeared first in a collection, then separately, then in a larger collection. Looked at more closely, however, in roughly chronological sequence, this publication history suggests a number of interesting intentions and effects. MacLeish first published in Part Two, Several Shadows of a Skull, of Streets in Moon,2 as one of a set of character impressions that also included Memorial Rain, Eleven, Sketch for a Portrait of Mme. G M , and The Farm, all of which were retained in collected editions. It then gained independent status by being published separately in 1929, apparently at Harry Crosby's request, by his Black Sun Press.3 For this edition MacLeish made one significant revision to gloss: Einstein ultimately before a mirror accepts hypothesis of exterior reality became Einstein provisionally before a mirror