The Queen's Wake is one of the landmarks of British Romantic poetry. It focuses on the return of Mary, Queen of Scots to Scotland in 1561 to take personal rule of her kingdom after her years in France. In the poem poets and bards hold a poetic competition (a 'wake') in Holyrood Palace to welcome the Queen home.
When The Queen's Wake was published in 1813 it proved an unexpected popular success, placing Hogg for a while alongside Byron and Scott as one of the most admired British poets of that time. Over the next six years Hogg made substantial revisions, making the poem even more attractive and saleable. The fifth edition (1819) is an enhanced and carefully polished version from a now established and respected poet. It is markedly different from the edgy, powerful and unsettling first version, which was the work of an impecunious and marginalised outsider. This book presents both the first and fifth edition of the poem.