DARLEY, George. Nepenthe. A poem in two cantos. With an introduction by R.A. Streatfeild. Elkin Mathews. 1897
Half title, col. front. Uncut in orig. blue boards, paper label on spine; spine darkened, sl. dulled, label chipped, but still a nice copy. Ink inscription on half title 'To H. Grierson, Laurence Binyon, August 1910.' Binyon was a poet, dramatist, and art scholar, best remembered for his poem 'The Fallen.' 61pp.
¶George Darley, 1795-1846, Irish novelist, literary critic, mathematician and poet. He was not particularly popular during his lifetime, but came back into fashion towards the end of the nineteenth century. According to R.A. Streatfeild, Darley's unfinished masterpiece Nepenthe was first privately published for a very small group in 1839; he records one surviving copy in the British Museum - the British Library has dated this sole recorded copy at 1835. 'Over a bloomy land untrod/ By heavier foot than bird or bee/ Lays on the grassy-bosomed sod,/ I passed one day in reverie...'
Stock #83812
£85
46, Great Russell Street - (opp. British Museum) - Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3PA
