 Of the copies of the original collection, only 28 published during his life are known to exist, with an additional 16 published posthumously.Only 5 of the poems from "Songs of Experience" appeared individually before 1839 with "A Poison Tree" first published in the 1830 "London University Magazine".The original title of the poem is "Christian Forbearance", and was placed as number 10 in the Rossetti manuscript, printed on a plate illustrated by a corpse under a barren tree.