# Is "Poems, in Two Volumes" by William Wordsworth a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Poems, in Two Volumes by William Wordsworth (Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807) is identified by: First edition, 12mo, printed in an edition of 500 copies, collating [iii]-[viii], 158pp in volume I and [iii]-[viii], 170pp in volume II; many copies were issued without half-titles.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, 12mo, printed in an edition of 500 copies, collating [iii]-[viii], 158pp in volume I and [iii]-[viii], 170pp in volume II; many copies were issued without half-titles
- First-state points include a full stop after "Sonnets" on page 103 of volume I and the misprint "fnuction" for "function" on page 98 of volume II. Genuine first-edition sets also call for two specific cancel leaves, D11 in volume I and B2 in volume II, which were reprinted and inserted before general publication
- Publisher imprint reads Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Wordsworth |
| Publisher | Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme |
| Year | 1807 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | First edition, 12mo, printed in an edition of 500 copies, collating [iii]-[viii], 158pp in volume I and [iii]-[viii], 170pp in volume II… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, 12mo, printed in an edition of 500 copies, collating [iii]-[viii], 158pp in volume I and [iii]-[viii], 170pp in volume II; many copies were issued without half-titles. First-state points include a full stop after "Sonnets" on page 103 of volume I and the misprint "fnuction" for "function" on page 98 of volume II. Genuine first-edition sets also call for two specific cancel leaves, D11 in volume I and B2 in volume II, which were reprinted and inserted before general publication.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Wordsworth substantially reorganized and revised these same poems, regrouping them under new thematic headings such as "Poems of the Imagination" and "Poems Founded on the Affections," for his 1815 collected Poems; that later edition presents a different arrangement and revised texts and is not a reprint of the 1807 Poems, in Two Volumes.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Poems, in Two Volumes* by William Wordsworth a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/poems-in-two-volumes
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.