[Matt Q]

This question relates to the magazines/sites not taking poems that have previously been published. I'm wondering how far that applies to major revisions or reusing parts of old poems.

For example, say I take the first two stanzas of an old poem, and then take the poem in a different direction in the next three or four stanzas, does this still count as the same poem, and hence previously published?

I realise there's likely not going to be a precise answer to this question, but I'm wondering if anyone can point me at precedents, or has done this. I can't find anything online.