Manuscript and typescript drafts of lines from Part III of Czargrad
[1973]
From MS Add.10038/4/6

On this sheet, Riley typed the manuscript version of the lines on the preceding sheet (taking account of the alteration of ‘sky’s limit’ to ‘limit of sky’) together with a further five lines taken from another manuscript sheet, and then added further lines in manuscript. This kind of incremental accretion of passages in successive manuscript and typescript versions is typical of Riley’s drafts. There was to be further re-ordering and redrafting of this section before Part III saw print.

In a letter to Michael Grant, who had commented on a draft of Part III, Riley wrote: ‘I insist that it is theologically sound to apologise to the blackbird for his place in creation. HOWEVER, point taken : if folk can object to the IDEAS I present, then I ain’t writing a poem – or not a good one.’