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London : Faber & Faber, (1954). First edition. A poem in the New Series of the Ariel Poems.
Demy 8vo (22cm). [8]pp. Title-page, colour lithograph, and tailpiece by Edward Bawden. Original self-wrappers, printed black on pale yellow; a fine copy in the original pink envelope – itself near fine. Bloomfield & Mendelson A34.

£25

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London : William Heinemann, 1931. First edition : [one of 1,000 copies]. A collection of forty-five poems, including “Thief”, “Castle”, “Bay of Naples”, “To the Reader over my Shoulder”, “Dragons”, “The Age of Certainty”, etc. “It must also be remarked about Mr. Graves that though a modern of the moderns, and for all his exclusiveness, there is nothing freakish in his technique. The above extract, for example, might quite well have come out of Shakespeare” (Liverpool Daily Post, 4th March 1931).
Post 8vo (21cm). [xii],(90),[ii]pp. Original maroon cloth, overprinted in a white cobbled design [by William Nicholson]; mauve paper labels, printed in black, on spine and upper cover; a few faint edge-spots, but a very good, crisp and sound copy, with the spare title-label tipped in at rear. With the ownership inscription of Clare Pakenham.

£50

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London : Cassell & Co., (1946). First edition. A collection of forty poems, printed at the Curwen Press. Includes “Dawn Bombardment”, “The Worms of History”, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, etc. – “some of them very charming; some delightfully neat and witty; and all provocative of thought” (Daily News, 27th February 1946).
Crown 8vo (20cm). [viii],40pp. Original turquoise cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; a few edge-spots, but a very good and bright copy in the original turquoise dust-jacket, printed in black – just lightly rubbed and faintly sunned at spine, but also very good.

£50

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London : Cassell & Co., (1951). First edition. Twenty-nine poems, mainly new – including “Counting the Beats”, “The Death Room”, “To a Poet in Trouble”, etc., but also including four or five revisions of earlier work. “A poet of great passion and splendid imagination: and if we did not know it already we have clear proof” (Bradford Observer, 5th January 1952).
Crown 8vo (19cm). (xii),40pp. Original green cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt; a touch sunned, but otherwise a very good copy in the dust-jacket – the jacket just faintly creased and with a tiny hint of wear, but also very good.

£40

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London : Faber & Faber, (1984). First edition : the first issue, with the integral endpapers. One of the most celebrated collections of poems of modern times – over forty poems from Heaney at the height of his powers. “Many of these poems have a tough rind as though the author knew for his purposes deferred comprehension was better than instant. Obliquity suits him. Heaney’s talent, a prodigious one, is exfoliating and augmenting here” (Richard Ellman).
Post 8vo (21cm). (124),[iv] – including integral endpapers. Original black boards, ruled and lettered in gilt; a very good copy indeed – bright, clean and sound, in an equally unflawed dust-jacket.

£200

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London : Faber & Faber, (1996). First edition. Heaney’s first post-Nobel collection of poems and 1996 Whitbread winner – some forty poems, including “The Rain Stick”, “Poet’s Chair”, “At the Wellhead”, etc. “Anyone who reads poetry has reason to rejoice at living in the age when Seamus Heaney is writing” (Richard Tillinghast in the New York Times Book Review).
Demy 8vo (23cm). [x],70pp. Original green boards, lettered in gilt; a very good copy indeed in the dust-jacket – the jacket equally very good.

£100

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London : Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961. First edition. “The tone, the subject, the attitude are unmistakeable ... they cannot be mistaken for the voice of any other poet – a rare quality at any period – is not the least of the reasons why Mr. Thomas is widely considered one of the finest poets writing in English at the moment ... its 36 granite-hard poems, their images shining like Penrhyn slate after rain, confirm Mr. Thomas as a minor poet of classic status” (Birmingham Daily Post, 19th September 1961).
Post 8vo (22cm). 48pp. Original boards; a very good copy in the matching dust-jacket – the jacket also very good, with the Poetry Book Society Choice wrap-around band.

£100

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London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1900. First edition. “I walked among the seven woods of Coole ... The sleep that is in the pools Among great trees, and in the wings of owls, And under lovers’ eyelids ... The harp-strings have begun to cry out to the eagles” . Yeats at his lyrical best in this “beautiful phantasmagoria” (Pall Mall Gazette, 8th December 1900). “Mr. Yeats in these later days has strange views as to the scope and mission of poetry. It is as guarded and peculiar and personal to himself as with other men are their last wills and testaments” (Morning Leader, 22nd January 1901).
Crown 4to (25cm). (58),[ii]pp. Original dark blue decorative cloth gilt over bevelled boards; top edge gilt; some mild wear to tips; endpapers lightly spotted; a few faint marks, but otherwise a very good copy of a handsome production. Neat “Aunt Nina” inscription to half-title.

£350

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