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What does "distillation" mean in the description. Is it less than the complete poems? Are there changes?

Gabriel H. Distillation here means that all the alternate versions are gone. As Dickinson published very little of her work in her lifetime and seemed to enjoy revision, often, there are several different versions of poems, each as apparently "final" as another. The editor here chose a single version of each poem, and did not include footnotes to point to possible alternative writings/readings, in order to winnow the text down to a readable size.
Carol Actually, it contains ALL the poems.

I suppose distillation might mean that the editorial content is gone. And they fit it all into a single, if rather fat, volume.

My edition does have index and cross reference lists; the poems themselves take up 720 pages.
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