THOMAS HUTCHINSON, M. A.
EDITOR OF THE OXFORD WORDSWORTH.
1914.
The Annotated Edition
THOMAS HUTCHINSON, M. A. by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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This isn't a poem by Shelley; it's a short dedicatory inscription found in the 1914 Oxford edition of his works, with Thomas Hutchinson listed as the editor.
- Themes
- art, memory
§01Quick summary
What this poem is about
This isn't a poem by Shelley; it's a short dedicatory inscription found in the 1914 Oxford edition of his works, with Thomas Hutchinson listed as the editor. It serves as a title page attribution, noting Hutchinson's academic degree and his previous editorial work on Wordsworth. There's no lyrical or narrative content here—just a bibliographic note included in the text.
§02Themes
Recurring themes
§03Line by line
Stanza by stanza, with notes
EDITOR OF THE OXFORD WORDSWORTH. / 1914.
Editor's note
The full text is a single dedicatory or title-page inscription. It mentions Thomas Hutchinson, M.A., highlights his most significant previous work — the Oxford edition of Wordsworth's poems — and states the year of publication, 1914. This serves as a credential: readers should have confidence in this edition of Shelley because the editor has already created a respected edition of Wordsworth. There’s no additional information provided, nor is any necessary.
§04Tone & mood
How this poem feels
Formal and distant — it reads like a title page rather than a poem. There's a lack of emotional depth, no identifiable voice, and no rhetorical flourish. It's strictly informational, reflecting how the Victorian and Edwardian scholarly communities endorsed texts based on the editor's reputation.
§05Symbols & metaphors
Symbols & metaphors
- M. A.
- The academic degree indicates scholarly authority. In the early 1900s, including a degree on a title page was a quick way to inform readers that the editor had received formal training and could be trusted with the text of a canonical poet.
- Oxford
- Oxford University Press held significant cultural influence in 1914, acting as the benchmark for literary standards in the English-speaking world. Just its name was a mark of editorial rigor and dependable text.
- 1914
- The year stands on the brink of the First World War, a time when there was a strong push to codify and preserve the English literary canon. Creating authoritative editions of Romantic poets such as Shelley and Wordsworth was part of a larger cultural effort to solidify national heritage in print.
§06Historical context
Historical context
Thomas Hutchinson (1849–1924) was a British scholar who gained recognition for his 1895 Oxford edition of Wordsworth's Poetical Works, which became a go-to reference. In 1904, he published an edition of Shelley's complete poetry for Oxford University Press, which he later revised and reissued in 1914—the edition associated with this inscription. This work was part of the Oxford Standard Authors series, designed to provide general readers with reliable and affordable single-volume editions of significant English poets. Shelley had passed away in 1822 at the young age of thirty, and his reputation experienced considerable ups and downs before the late Victorian era solidified his status as a key Romantic figure. By the time Hutchinson's edition came out in 1914, editing Shelley's work was taken quite seriously, and having Hutchinson's name on the title page served to assure buyers that the text had been meticulously prepared.
§07FAQ
Questions readers ask
No. This inscription is from the title page of the 1914 Oxford edition of Shelley's poetical works and was written to identify the editor, Thomas Hutchinson. Shelley passed away in 1822 and did not write this text. It is catalogued under Shelley's name because it appears in his collected works, but it serves as editorial information, not a poem.
Thomas Hutchinson (1849–1924) was an English literary scholar known for editing key Romantic poets for Oxford University Press. His 1895 edition of Wordsworth became quite popular, while his edition of Shelley, first published in 1904 and revised in 1914, served as a standard reference for many years.
M.A. stands for Master of Arts, which is an academic degree. Including it on a title page today signals scholarly credentials to readers who might not have another way to assess the editor's qualifications.
It serves as a credential. By 1914, Hutchinson's Wordsworth edition was already respected, so mentioning it on the Shelley title page indicated that this editor has previously engaged in similar careful work and done it effectively.
It consisted of budget-friendly, single-volume editions featuring prominent English writers, published by Oxford University Press. The aim was to provide students and general readers with access to trustworthy texts without the high expense of multi-volume scholarly collections.
By 1914, Shelley had firmly established his position in the Romantic canon, leading to a growing demand for reliable editions suitable for classrooms and libraries. The start of World War I further fueled the desire to preserve and document England's literary heritage.
Treat this as a bibliographic note rather than a poem. If it appears in a collected works volume, it's merely the title-page attribution from the editor that has been included in the digital or print record. There’s no literary content here to analyze in the traditional sense.
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