The Changing Light At Sandover - Opening

Admittedly I err by undertaking

This in its present form. That baldest prose

Reportage was called for, that would reach

The widest public in the shortest time.

Time, it had transpired, was of the essence.

Time, the very attar of the Rose,

Was running out. We, though, were ancient foes,

This Is a Borzoi Book

Published by Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright 1980, 1982 by James Merrill

Compilation copyright 2006 by The Literary Estate of James

Merrill at Washington University

Editors' Note copyright 2006 by J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Knopf Hardcover Edition published May 8, 1992

First Knof Paperback Edition published September 10, 1993

Reprinted Six Times

Eighth Printing, August 2003

Second Knop Hardcover Edition published February 14, 2006