The difference between these editions is in the arrangement of the poems. The American edition features many of the poems left out of the 1962 Knopf edition of The Colossus. While the British counterpart features a good many poems actually written in-between those written for The Colossus and those published in Ariel.

The American edition ends on the poem "Crossing the Water" and the British edition ends with "Among the Narcissi". The reader is set up for a smoother transition between The Colossus and Ariel in the British version. Although both poems were written in the spring of 1962, according the Plath's Collected Poems, I feel that "Among the Narcissi" offers a better glimpse as to what Plath would produce.

The title of the volume, Crossing the Water, connotes leaving one shore for another, or, going on a journey, the result of which is some significant change. In this regard, these poems do represent a literal crossing of Plath's poetic voice. As most were written between 1960 and 1961, this volume bridges the leap evident in the different styles, voices, and poems Plath published in The Colossus and Ariel.

The contents of the Faber edition of Crossing the Water are: Wuthering Heights, Pheasant, Crossing the Water, Finisterre, Face Lift, Parliament Hill Fields, Insomniac, An Appearance, Blackberrying, I Am Vertical, The Babysitters, In Plaster, Leaving Early, Stillborn, Private Ground, Heavy Woman, Widow, Magi, Candles, Event, Love Letter, Small Hours, Sleep in the Mojave Desert, The Surgeon at 2 a.m., Two Campers in Cloud Country, Mirror, A Life, On Deck, Apprehensions, Zoo Keeper's Wife, Whitsun, The Tour, Last Words, and Among the Narcissi. Because these poems better represent Plath's transition than its American counterpart, the Faber edition of Crossing the Water is a much better collection of poems.

Poems copyrighted to Faber & Faber (UK) & HarperCollins (US).

A selection of reviews of Crossing the Water
Aird, Eileen M. Critical Quarterly. Autumn 1971: 286-8.

Alvarez, A. "Publish and be damned." The Observer. October 3, 1971: 36.

B., R. "The Earlier Plath." Plain Dealer. October 24, 1971: F-12.

Boyers, Robert. "On Sylvia Plath: review of Crossing the Water." Salmagundi. Winter 1973: 96-104.

Bruss, Elizabeth Wissman. Michigan Daily. November 13, 1971: 5.

Davison, Peter. "Three Visionary Poets." Atlantic Monthly. February 1972: 104-6.

Dunn, Douglas. "Damaged Instruments: review of Crossing the Water." Encounter. August 1971: 68-70.

Eagleton, Terry. "New Poetry: review of Crossing the Water." Stand. 1971-2: 76.

Fuller, John. "Waiting for Ariel." Listener. June 3, 1971: 728-9.

Gonzales, Laurence. "Sylvia Plath, Crossing Over." Chicago Daily News. October 9-10, 1971: 12.

Green, Martin. "Of Pigs and People." Sunday Telegraph. June 6, 1971: 10.

Howes, Victor. "I am silver and exact." Christian Science Monitor. September 30, 1971: 8.

Jacobson, Dan. "Mirrors Can Kill: Dan Jacobson Considers the Artistic Martyrdom of Sylvia Plath." Listener. October 7, 1971.

Kameen, Paul. Best Sellers. November 1, 1971: 347-8.

Keating, Douglas. "Four Poets: Brilliance to Sterility." Philadelphia Inquirer. December 12, 1971: H-6.

Kramer, Victor. "Life-and-death dialectics." Modern Poetry Studies. 1972: 40-2.

Melander, Ingrid. Moderna sprak. 1971: 360-3.

Paterno, Domenica. "Poetry." Library Journal. October 1, 1971: 3141.

Philbrick, Stephen. "The Life, Work and World of Sylvia Plath." Providence Sunday Journal. October 31, 1971: H-6.

Phillips, Barry. "At last - more Plath poems." The Boston Herald. 1971.

Porter, Peter. "Collecting her strength." New Statesman. June 4, 1971: 774-5.

Pratt, Linda Ray. "The spirit of blackness is us..." Prairie Schooner. Spring 1973: 87-90.

Pritchard, William H. "Youngsters, Middlesters, and Some Old Boys." Hudson Review. Spring 1972: 119-34.

Rakosi, Carl. "Sylvia Plath: The Poetess and the Myth." Minneapolis Tribune. November 14, 1971: D-6, 7.

Reeves, Campbell. "Sylvia Plath's Final Poems." News and Observer. January 2, 1972: 6.

Scruton, Roger. "Sylvia Plath and the Savage God." Spectator. December 18, 1971: 890.

Sergeant, Howard. English. Autumn 1971: 106-9.

Vendler, Helen. "Sylvia Plath Playing Pygmalion to Her Own Galatea." New York Times Book Review. October 10, 1971: 4, 48.

West, Paul. "Crossing the water." Chicago Tribune (Book World). January 9, 1972: 8.

"A world in disintegration." Times Literary Supplement. December 24, 71: 1602.

X, Catherine. "Sylvia Plath: Transitional Poems from the Gut." Los Angeles Free Press. March 24-30, 1972: 13, 15.