Poems

Sixth Edition. Revised and with a new Preface dated June, 1912. Cr. 8vo. Pp. xv, 322, [1]. Publisher's dark blue cloth, elaborately tooled in gilt to boards and spine, after an art nouveau design by Althea Gyles. Deckle edges. Title-page printed in red and black. Tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of the author by John B. Yeats. Glossary. With tipped-in price warning slip on the front free endpaper. Printed by the Gresham Press/Unwin Brothers Ltd. Incorporates revisions to "The Wandering of Usheen", "The Land of Heart's Desire", and "The Countess Cathleen."

Neat previous owner's dated signature on the front free endpaper. Prelims. and rear endpapers lightly foxed, slight spotting to fore-edge, upper corners somewhat bumped, else Very Good. Unusually bright gilt to covers overall.

Originally published in 1899, Yeats would incessantly revise his magnum opus, a process he likened to "cutting out the dead wood," leading to the definitive 1927 form of this collection.

[Wade 99]