Editorial Emendations

Changes to The Emigrant in The Poetical Works
of Alexander McLachlan (1900)

As discussed in the Introduction, pp. lii-liii, the version of The Emigrant contained in The Poetical Works of Alexander McLachlan (Toronto: William Briggs, 1900), pp. 209-256 differs in a variety of ways from the first edition of the poem, upon which the present edition is based. Since some of these changes appear to have emanated from McLachlan, they are clearly of interest and are therefore recorded in this Appendix. What follows is the Argument that precedes The Emigrant in The Poetical Works and a list of all the differences between the 1861 and 1900 texts of the poem. In the list, the reading of the first edition appears before the “]” and that of The Poetical Works after the “]”. For example, the entry under Introduction “2 the winter's ] stern Winter’s” indicates that, where the first edition has “the winter’s”, The Poetical Works has “stern Winter’s.” Throughout the poem in The Poetical Works (hereafter, PW), the stanza numbers have been changed from the “I.”, “II.”, etc. of the first edition to “I”, “II”, etc.

ARGUMENT

Introduction: The poet apostrophizes Canada as a land where Nature's operations are on a large scale, and which, though without extended national history, yet supplies a theme for the poet in the struggles of the pioneer settlers. [Page 111]