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After I sent my last, I found myself thinking with some surprise that I'd never actually read the Ancient Mariner without the notes, and would like to, though whether the Oxford Book is the right way to keep this version in print is another question. And though I'm not exactly a hardline postmodernist, I do think it's a good thing that certain texts are available in multiple form, both as a reminder of the complexities of writing in general and because some texts reward that degree of scrutiny whether you're an academic or just a fan. Somebody once did a spoof rejection letter in which an editor thanked Mr Eliot for the chance to read his fascinating experimental poem 'Notes to the Waste Land', but added that he (TSE) had accidentally appended to it a few pages of private jottings on birdsong, quotations from the classics etc. Best wishes Matthew Francis [mailto:[log in to unmask] 01443 482856 -----Original Message----- From: Martin J. Walker [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 27 April 2094 00:51 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: The Grime of the Ancient Mariner Obviously I can't go into it here, Matthew,(a) it would take too long and b) I can't remember any details, but the changes involve more than the glosses and started when he was intimidated by Wordsworth's rather contemptuous attitude to his fantastic tale, I think (without having reread all the commentary to check) . Naturally one can take the rather post-modern attitude that the more the merrier, as you and others do, but Empson and after him Ricks seem to have a yen for the unadulterated original, and after all, Jon, they haven't actually erased it from the scrolls of human memory, have they? (I prefer the 1805 Prelude to 1850's, like many others, but both remain available.) By the way, I created an ambiguity with "also... decoy" - I meant that Eliot's notes had that quality in addition, not that Coleridge's glosses had it too. I should have said Eliot's notes are meant to distract one from certain meanings of the poem and are probably a bit of a Possum legpull. Cheers, Martin %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%