[Rarebooks] fa: HENRY KIRKE WHITE - CLIFTON GROVE, A SKETCH IN VERSE & Other Poems 1803 - the "Boy Poet of Nottingham"

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 24. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mft586p

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Henry Kirke White: Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse. With Other Poems. London: Printed by N. Biggs for Vernor and Hood, 1803. FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo (17 cm) in early/original marbled boards and buff paper spine; [2], xiv, 111, [1] pp.; leaf of publisher's adverts bound in at the front.

Henry Kirke White (1785-1806) was archetypal of that romantic figure common to the Romantic Era, the young poet, discovered in obscurity, who blossoms for a brief, glorious span before dying prematurely, his promise unfulfilled. The son of a Nottingham butcher, White displayed such literary precocity at an early age that he attracted the notice and assistance of patrons. Still in his early teens, he became a member of a Nottingham literary society, won awards for his poetry and translations of Horace, and regularly published essays in the Monthly Mirror and other periodicals. Clifton Grove, his first and only collection of poetry, was published before his eighteenth birthday, and earned the admiration of Lord Byron and Robert Southey. Barely three years later White was dead, at twenty-one, his mind and body "weakened by overstudy." Southey edited his posthumously published Poetical Works and Remains. Though he had the temerity to dedicate this collection to the Duchess of Devonshire, White was self-effacing In his preface, stating that "the following attempts at Verse,… the juvenile efforts of a youth,… are laid before the Public with extreme diffidence." In addition to the title work, other poems  include: Lines supposed to be spoken by a Lover at the Grave of his Mistress; My Study, a Letter in Hudibrastic Verse; Odes to the Morning, written during an illness, and to the Herb Rosemary; Sonnets to the River Trent, to the Winter Traveller, on hearing the Sound of the Aeolian Harp; Sonnet supposed to be addressed by a Female Lunatic to a Lady; Lullaby of a Female Convict to her Child, the Night previous to Execution; etc.

Rubbing and modest wear to the boards, some splits and chipping to the spine paper (but binding is secure); a few stray spots to the leaves; otherwise unusually clean, bright and fresh. A very nice copy.