With the addition of "Miscellaneous Poems of Later Dates" in 1914, Mrs. Dowden preserved the order of her husband’s early work but imposed a partly chronological arrangement on that and future
editions of Dowden’s verse. She was ambitious to revive Dowden’s reputation as a poet. And Dent actually advertised a two-volume Poetical Works of Edward Dowden, counting its remake of the "old
volume of Edward Dowden’s Poems of 1876" as one, with the "additions" just mentioned, and counting A Woman’s Reliquary as the other. The present edition is therefore quasi-chronological: being
strictly chronological in a tripartite divisional arrangement (i.e., "from Poems," "Miscellaneous Poems of Later Dates," and "A Woman’s Reliquary"), followed by a short section entitled
"Uncollected Verses," while maintaining sequences the poet designed. The division of "Uncollected Verses" is chronological according to the dates of publication, and this section is small
because Mrs. Dowden had laid her hands on almost all of the already published poetry, save for that of a more ephemeral nature--for example, that published in Trinity College Dublin anthologies
such as Kottabos I and II and, conjecturally, in The Irish Monthly to accompany a review of his work.
