Poetry
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DARWIN, Erasmus. The Poetical Works.London : 1806
First edition of this posthumous collection placing Darwin's exuberant and eccentric inquiry into the Linnaean system in rhyming couplets alongside his poetic speculations on evolution, the whole much enlivened by numerous plates including a number by Blake and Fuseli. A wide-margined, ?large paper copy in a handsome Regency binding from the library... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 141677
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TRANSTROMER, Tomas. Citoyens.Knotting, Bedfordshire : 1974
First English language edition, copy 100 of 150 copies, printed on Abbey Mills laid paper, this a presentation copy inscribed by Transtromer, and additionally signed by the translator Robin Fulton on the colophon. Copies numbered one to 50 were issued signed by Transtromer; this copy, though a later number, was instead presented by the poet with a lengthy... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 141215
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WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass.Brooklyn : 1855
First edition of one of the central works of American poetry. Much has been written of the significance of this first edition"America's second Declaration of Independence" to quote PMM. "The slender volume introduced the poet who, celebrating the nation by celebrating himself, has since remained at the heart of America's cultural memory because in the... Learn More£60,000.00Stock Code: 135889
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TENNYSON, Alfred Lord. Poems.[London?] : 1862
First pirated edition of Tennyson's suppressed poems, taken from the Poems, Chiefly Lyrical of 1830 and the Poems of 1833, and printed by J. Dykes Campbell and sold by the bookseller John Camden Hotten.
Tennyson took legal action, obtained an injunction to prevent its sale, and extracted an apology and 100 damages from Hotten. The book was issued... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 130070
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THOMAS, R. S. Destinations.Shipston-on-Stour : 1985
First and limited edition, one of 300 copies (this copy unnumbered and out of series), beautifully printed by Sebastian Carter at the Rampant Lions Press. Although Thomas's poetry is "commonly renowned for pessimism and distress... Destinations is the neglected mainspring of the poet's philosophical turning towards affirmation" (Christopher Morgan,... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 123679
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UPDIKE, John. Facing Nature.New York : 1985
First edition, first printing, of Updike's seventh collection of poetry. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 128336
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GRAVES, Robert. Selected Poetry and Prose.London : 1961
First edition, first impression. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 141016
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GRAVES, Robert. Contemporary Techniques of Poetry.London : 1925
First edition, first impression. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 141017
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GRAVES, Robert. Poems 1930-1933.London : 1933
First edition, first impression. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 140726
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DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Guards Came Through.London : 1919
First edition, first impression, of this collection of poetry, comprising largely of poems relating to war. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 140750
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MARKS, Herbert H. Pax Obbligato.London : [1937]
First edition, first impression. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 140716
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PUDNEY, John. Beyond the Disregard.London : 1943
First edition, first impression, of the author's second collection of poetry. Learn More£40.00Stock Code: 140600
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STEVENS, Wallace. Parts of a World.New York : 1942
First edition, first printing. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 140586
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(DOUGLAS, Lord Alfred.) STOPES, Marie Carmichael. Lord Alfred Douglas.London : 1949
First edition, first impression. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 140590
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WYNDHAM-LEWIS, D. B. Ronsard.London : 1946
First UK edition, third impression, of the author's biography of the French Renaissance poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585). The first edition was published in the US and UK simultaneously, with the first impression appearing in 1944. Learn More£25.00Stock Code: 140591
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GRAVES, Robert. Steps.London : 1958
First edition, first impression of this collection of writings. Learn More£60.00Stock Code: 140494
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NERUDA, Pablo. The Heights of Macchu Picchu.London : 1966
First English-language edition of Neruda's masterpiece, the publisher's copy signed for him by the poet on the front free endpaper, "Pablo Neruda, 1970", with the bookplate of Tom Maschler to front pastedown. Maschler was the head of Jonathan Cape, and a hugely influential figure in 20th-century literature: he had a particular genius for bringing world-class... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 132730
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THOMAS, Dylan. Poems.New York : 1971
First US edition, first printing, inscribed by Daniel Jones, the editor of this volume and a close friend of Dylan Thomas since childhood, on the front pastedown to his wife, "To Irene, with love from Dan. 23rd November 1971", and accompanied by an autograph letter signed from Edith Sitwell to Jones, discussing Erich Fried's German translation of Under... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 140659
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![Hebrew Melodies; [bound after:] Lara, a Tale.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/131641.jpg)
BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Hebrew Melodies; [bound after:] Lara, a Tale.London : 1815
First edition, first issue of Hebrew Melodies, marking the first appearance in print of "She Walks in Beauty", among the most famous poems in the English language. Hebrew Melodies is bound after the fifth edition of Lara, which was first published in 1814. John Murray published Byron's poems in a uniform size, and it was common for contemporary owners... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 131641
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CLUTTON-BROCK, Arthur. Simpson's Choice.London : 1915
First edition, first impression, one of 500 copies printed (this copy unnumbered). Simpson's Choice was the first work to be published at the Omega Workshop, which was founded in July 1913, and was to be one of only four books completed by the press.
The original prospectus (not present here) stated the intention of this enterprise, declaring that... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 141226
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(EVANS, Walker.) CRANE, Hart. The BridgeParis : 1930
First edition, first impression, number 89 of 200 copies on Holland Paper from a total limited edition of 284 copies. The Bridge was Crane's only attempt at a long poem, inspired by his view of the Brooklyn Bridge from his apartment in Columbia Heights, and includes three plates from photographs of the bridge by his friend Walker Evans. Harold Bloom... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 135122
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SPENDER, Stephen. Ruins and Visions.London : 1942
First edition, first impression, presentation copy of a work rarely found inscribed, to his lifelong friend and fellow poet W. H. Auden on the half-title, "To Wystan, with love from Stephen. March 1942".
This is a key association, inscribed using Auden's first name, which was reserved for friends. Auden was a major influence on Spender: "A pontiff... Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 139371
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ELIOT, T. S. The Waste Land.London : 1961 [1962]
First Bodoni edition of Eliot's masterpiece, number 143 of 300 copies signed by the poet on the limitation leaf; a magnificent piece of book production executed in Verona under the direction of Giovanni Mardersteig, the greatest printer of the 20th century. Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 137130
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[BRADLEY, Katharine, & Edith Cooper.] FIELD, Michael. Poems of Adoration.London & Edinburgh : [1912]
First edition of this collaboration by Edith Emma Cooper and her aunt and sometime lover Katharine Harris Bradley, pseudonymously-published as Michael Field. Their first publication as "Michael Field", Callirhoë (1884), was publicly well-received, with The Spectator greeting it "as a work of 'great promise', exhibiting 'the true poetic and... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 134560
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BURNS, Robert. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.Edinburgh : 1787
First Edinburgh edition, the second overall, in an attractive contemporary binding. This edition was preceded only by the highly rare Kilmarnock edition of 1786, from which it was expanded, containing twenty-two new pieces, including "To a Haggis", and the first appearance in print of "Death and Doctor Hornbook", which had been omitted from the Kilmarnock... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 141696
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BELBEN, May. The Singing Heart.Bournemouth : 1928
First edition, second impression, signed by the author on front free endpaper verso, "from May Belben, Dec. 1928" and with a note on her own stationery inscribed, "with all good wishes from May Belben" (letterhead Forest Hill, Corfe Mullen, Wimborne, Dorset). A charming little volume printed on enamel paper; nature poetry of "simple sentiment" illustrated... Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 141508
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ELIOT, T. S. Murder in the Cathedral.Canterbury : 1935
First edition, first impression, one of 750 copies published May 1935 for sale at the first production of the play in Canterbury Cathedral. The text of the Faber & Faber edition, which was published in June, was slightly altered. The true first edition is now quite scarce, and this is a near-fine example. Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 141449
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BUKOWSKI, Charles. Crucifix in a Deathhand. New Poems 1963-65.New York : 1965
First and limited edition of 3,100 copies, this a superb presentation copy from Bukowski, inscribed exuberantly in red and silver paint pen on the page facing the colophon, "For Jerry Cushman, Poems sure, Poems why not, Charles Bukowski, 5-3-65", accompanied by a drawing of a caged flower and a bottle; additionally signed by Bukowski on the half-title... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 139612
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JUNG, Sir Nizamat. Arabian Poems. The Land of Faith.Hyderabad : 1935
First edition, no other copy traced. Group of poems on Islamic themes dedicated to Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur, Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar - "The Premier Muslim Ruler in India". Sir Nizamat Jung Bahadur (1871-1955)was an Arab-Indian poet, lawyer and bibliophile. In 1887 he became a student at Trinity College Cambridge where he gained a B.A. and LL.B... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 140973
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SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Poetical Pieces.London : 1823
First edition, an exquisite copy in a rare and highly unusual contemporary binding, of this posthumous gathering of unsold first editions of Shelley's major works, comprising Prometheus Unbound (1820), Hellas (1822), and Rosalind and Helen (1819), as well as the first London edition, second overall, of The Cenci (1821). These titles include among their... Learn More£9,500.00Stock Code: 111619
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STEVENSON, Robert Louis. A Child's Garden of Verses.London : 1885
First edition, one of 1,000 copies published. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 132801
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GRIGSON, Geoffrey (ed.) New Verse.[London : 1933-9
A complete and near-fine run of "the most influential British poetry magazine of the 1930s", with the uncommonly found wraparound band for the W. H. Auden double-issue released in November 1937 (ODNB).
New Verse published "the finest poets of the W. H. Auden generation", such as Louis MacNeice, Stephen Spender, Dylan Thomas, Kathleen Raine, and... Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 141132
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ELIOT, T. S. Four Quartets.London : 1960
First Bodoni edition, number 250 of 290 copies signed by the poet. A magnificent piece of book production executed in Verona under the direction of Giovanni Mardersteig, the greatest printer of the 20th century. Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 137131
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(ROBINSON, Charles.) SHAKESPEARE, William. The Songs and Sonnets of William Shakespeare.London : [1915]
First Robinson edition. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 98921
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(ELIOT, T. S., trans.) PERSE, St. John. Anabasis.London : 1930
First edition, number 6 of 350 copies signed by Eliot on the limitation page. This handsome Faber edition prints Eliot's translation in parallel with the original French text. Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 141365
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(VERONA PRESS.) CHAGAL, Marc (illus.), and others. The Verona Press Rhyme Sheets 1 - 6.London : 1938
First edition, first impression, of this illustrated collection of poems from modern, ancient Greek, and medieval Chinese poets, including Geoffrey Scott, George Barker, and Frederick Johnston. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 141197
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WALCOTT, Derek. In A Green Night.London : 1962
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy to the publisher, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Tom Maschler, gratefully, Derek Walcott, Oct 9 64". This was the copy of Tom Maschler, the publisher, with his bookplate to front pastedown. Maschler joined Jonathan Cape as editorial director, aged 26, in 1960, and became managing... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 141382
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BISHOP, Elizabeth. Geography III.New York : 1976
First edition, first printing, signed by the poet on the title page and dated in the year of publication, "Elizabeth Bishop, December 28th, 1976". Geography III was Bishop's last work and won the Book Critics' Circle Award for 1977. "This volume of nine beautifully crafted poems returns to themes of North and South but with greater intimacy and immediacy"... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 141351
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CAVAFY, C. P. The Poems.London : 1951
First edition, first impression, of the first translation of Cavafy's collected poems into English, translated by John Mavrogordato (1882-1970, Oxford professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek), published by the Hogarth Press, and now quite scarce. Constantine P. Cavafy (1864-1933) is now acknowledged as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century,... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 141377
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(BLAKE, William.) GRAY, Thomas. William Blake's Water-Colour Designs for the Poems of Thomas Gray.London : 1972
First edition thus, first impression, number 467 of 100 copies reserved for Paul Mellon, from a total edition of 518 copies issued in a range of formats (of which the present copy is one of those "unbound in the French style"), all printed on Arches pure rag paper made specially to match that used by Blake. In this extravagant tour de force Blake used... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 141250
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WAITE, Arthur Edward. Strange Houses of Sleep.London : 1906
First edition, sole impression, number 16 of 250 copies, each signed by the author. Strange Houses of Sleep collects the esoteric poetry (including a lengthy verse drama on the holy grail) of A. E. Waite (1857-1942), popularly known for his creation of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. "Through his critical and historical studies of occultism in all its forms,... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 139766
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MORRIS, William, & Eiríkr Magnússon (trans.) The Saga Library.London : 1891-1905
First editions, first impressions, scarce found as the complete set, and more usually in sorry state. The culmination of Morris's interest in the medieval literature of Iceland, the Saga Library was translated and edited by Morris together with his friend and scholar Eiríkr Magnússon (1833-1913) and sought to make the material more accessible to an... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 139302
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DRAKE, Leah Bodine. A Hornbook for Witches: Poems of Fantasy.Sauk City, Wisconsin : 1950
First edition, first printing, of the first book of American poet Leah Bodine Drake (1904-1964), a contributor to Weird Tales. Of the edition of 553 copies, 300 were given to the author and 253 for the trade, the small issue making it one of the scarcer of the Arkham House publications, here in exemplary condition. An audiobook by the same... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 138972
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MORRIS, William, & Alfred John Wyatt, translators. The Tale of Beowulf.Hammersmith : 1895
First Kelmscott edition, and the first edition of William Morris's translation, one of 300 copies printed on paper (a further eight copies were issued on vellum). Morris began his translation of the great English epic in 1893, based on a prose rendering by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Alfred J. Wyatt of Christ's College, with whom he consulted over a two... Learn More£6,750.00Stock Code: 138925
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![Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems [including "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"].](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/137732_1.jpg)
[COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, &] William Wordsworth. Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems [including "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"].London : 1798
First edition, the earliest obtainable issue of the collection of poems which inaugurated the Romantic movement in English literature and poetry, and one of the most celebrated of all collaborative literary works. Though he is not credited, Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is printed here for the first time, alongside three other of his... Learn More£11,500.00Stock Code: 137732
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YEATS, W. B. The Secret Rose.London : 1897
First edition, first impression, first issue binding with "Lawrence & Bullen" at the foot of spine, scarce in such nice condition. With The Secret Rose Yeats was at the height of his powers as a prose mythographer, bringing together the two key loci of his imagination: the Celtic folklore of his native Ireland, and the alchemical mysteries... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 135709
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SPENSER, Edmund. The Faerie Queene.London : 1751
First complete and first illustrated edition, including Thomas Birch's Life; Spenser's letter to Walter Raleigh; commendatory verses; numerous dedicatory verses by Spenser; an exact collation of the two original editions of 1590 and 1596 which combine to give the first complete text in one edition including the fragment of Book VII; a glossary; and... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 132657
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HOWARD, Robert E. Always Comes Evening.Sauk City, WI : 1957
First edition, first printing, of this collection of macabre poems by Robert E. Howard (1906-1936), with dust jacket designed by Frank Utpatel. Learn More£1,350.00Stock Code: 122348
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(SAPPHO.) CARMAN, Bliss. Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics.Toronto : 1905
First edition, first printing, Canadian issue published in 1905 using the sheets of the first edition published in Boston in 1904. The colophon on the title page verso restates the first edition's imprint, being one of 500 copies (this number 453) printed in 1903 "with the type distributed". Both the US and Canadian issues are scarce, the latter apparently... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 141178
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YEATS, W. B. The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems.London : 1889
First edition, first issue, a major literary association copy, inscribed by Yeats on the front free endpaper, "To the poet of the North Countrie, Joseph Skipsey, with the author's kind regards". In addition, Yeats has made minor corrections to the text on four pages. The inscription shows Yeats's admiration for the Newcastle pitman poet, whom he honours... Learn More£9,750.00Stock Code: 140222
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(TOLKIEN, J. R. R.) BRAY, Olive (ed. and trans.) The Elder or Poetic Edda,London : 1908
First edition, first impression, of this English translation that influenced J. R. R. Tolkien. This attractively illustrated work was reissued in 2013 as part of "Tolkien's Bookshelf", noting this edition as a general inspiration and the source of the Dwarves' names in The Hobbit. The projected second part was never completed, making this complete... Learn More£1,850.00Stock Code: 139900
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CARROLL, Lewis. Phantasmagoria.London : 1869
First edition, first issue. One of 28 presentation copies sent out by Dodgson on 7 Januray 1869, inscribed by the author in brown ink on the half-title: "T. Heaphy, Esq. with the Author's Kind regards. Jan. 1869". The recipient was Thomas Frank Heaphy the Younger (1813-1873), a well regarded portrait and narrative painter whose name figures heavily... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 137829
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HUGHES, Ted. Tales From Ovid.London : 1998
First edition, signed limited issue, signed by the author; this is the binder's copy, marked "0/5". The signed limited edition consisted of 310 copies, of which 10 were reserved for the author. This work was the winner of the 1997 Whitbread Book of the Year award. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 138031
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AUDEN, W. H. Spain.London : 1937
First edition, first impression. It was written after Auden's visit to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, a troubling experience that left him morally ambivalent toward the Republican cause. He published this supportive poem on his return, however, to defend the Republicans against Nazism, which he viewed as the greater evil. The proceeds of the poem... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 141088
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SANDERS, Ed. Fuck God in the Ass.New York : 1967
First edition, one of 500 copies of the the "trade" issue of this thoroughly blasphemous and obscene product of the mimeograph revolution, comprising erotic poems by Ed Sanders (b.1939), leader of The Fugs, printed on lurid pink paper at his own Fuck You Press. The colophon on the rear advertises, aside from the trade edition, ten copies of the "Rough... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 141012
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MACPHERSON, John. Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the ancient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots.London : 1768
First edition of the author's most important work, his posthumously published response to the Ossian controversy, written in part as a defence of the Ossianic poems but also to encourage wider appreciation of Scottish culture and literature.
A Scottish minister and a recognized Celtic authority on antiquities, Macpherson had met James Macpherson... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140867
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BUKOWSKI, Charles; Michael Montfort; Gerry Locklin. Poop.Ventura : 2003
First edition, first printing, number 42 of 100 copies only. Bukowski's heretofore unpublished poem, Poop, reminisces about his uncomfortable childhood relationship with his parents and its ensuing constipation. It is accompanied by pictures of the writer taken by Michael Montfort over a decade of friendship and drinking, "you should enjoy... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 140947
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MARCEAU, Marcel. Les rêveries de Bip.Paris : 1978
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the half-title "A Hubert Juin, de tout coeur, Bip flower, Marcel Marceau 1978". Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown". The recipient, in fact Hubert Loescher (1926-1987), was a Belgian poet, novelist,... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140934
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(GRAVES, Robert, ed.) HARDY, Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon, et al. The Owl.London : 1919-23
First editions, first impressions, the first number being from the very scarce signed limited issue, one of 24 unnumbered copies signed by the 18 contributors: Max Beerbohm, George Belcher, Pamela Biano, W. H. Davies, John Galsworthy, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Eric Kennington, J. Masefield, Robert Nichols, Nancy Nicholson, W. Nicholson, William Orpen,... Learn More£3,250.00Stock Code: 139992
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THOMAS, Dylan. Deaths and Entrances. Poems.London : 1946
First edition, first impression, in exceptional condition, of Thomas's collection of poems including his much-loved ode to the vivacity of youth, "Fern Hill". Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 141051
