Terminology and Abbreviations

The title A Vision is used to refer to the two separate editions of the work as a single, connected set of concepts; otherwise they are referred to as A Vision A and A Vision B. In citations these are AVA and AVB and these abbreviated forms are used in notes. The “system” refers to the wider complex of ideas and themes, only partly included in the published versions of A Vision. In the notes WBY and GY are used for W. B. Yeats and George Yeats, and AS is used as an abbreviation for “automatic script.”

The special terms of A Vision are italicized and capitalized according to Yeats's (and his publishers’) general practice in A Vision B. Underlined terms from manuscripts are italicized. Roman font is retained when quotations— whether in manuscript or by other writers—use that form.

Manuscript Transcription

The policy has been to make manuscript transcriptions as clear as possible, while remaining faithful to the original. Yeats's handwriting is frequently hardly legible, and many words are only ascertainable by context, sometimes only provisionally. Furthermore, Yeats's spelling was erratic: words that are obviously misspelled—such as the recurrent “phisical” or “sleap”—are kept in their misspelled form (without [sic]), while other words where individual letters are less clear are given with standard spelling. Words and punctuation marks supplied to make sense or ease reading are placed in square brackets; uncertain readings are placed in square brackets preceded by a question mark to distinguish them. The Collected Letters and “Vision” Papers also retain as much of Yeats's spelling as possible and are quoted without [sic].

Many manuscripts and typescripts contain cancellation: where this has been transcribed it appears struck through. Often, however, it would be repetitious or distracting, and most cancelled material has been omitted for readability. Long passages which are cancelled (often by diagonal strokes across the page) are usually explained in the text or footnote, with any subsidiary cancellation struck through.

Manuscript Sources

Almost all the manuscripts referred to are in the Yeats papers at the National Library of Ireland (NLI), generously donated by the Yeats family. I have consulted them at the Library in Dublin, and also on microfilm from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Long Island, New York, and on microfilm at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.