A58 POEMS 1938–1945 [1945]

a. First edition:

ROBERT GRAVES | POEMS | [elaborate red circular design, inside which:] 1938–1945 | CASSELL & COMPANY LTD. | [heavy rule] | [light rule] | LONDON, TORONTO, MELBOURNE | AND SYDNEY

Collation: [A] – [B]4 C–F4, 24 leaves.

p.[i] ROBERT GRAVES | POEMS (1938–1945); p.[ii] blank; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] publication and printer’s notices; p. [v]–[vi] CONTENTS p.[vii] FOREWORD p.[viii] blank pp.1–40 text.

18.4 × 11.9 cm. Bulk: 0.4/0.7 cm. Cream laid paper; all edges trimmed; watermarked with a crown and Abbey Mills | Greenfield. White wove endpapers. Bound in blue-green cloth; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold, bottom to top: [light-heavy-light rules] CASSELL [four-pointed star] POEMS (1938–1945) [four-pointed star] ROBERT GRAVES [light-heavy-light rules]

Price: 5s. Number of copies: 3,000. Published November 1945 in a sea-green dust-jacket printed in black.

Contents: Foreword – POEMS: 1. A Love Story – 2. Dawn Bombardment – 3. The Worms of History – 4. The Beast – 5. A Withering Herb – 6. The Shot – 7. The Thieves – 8. Lollocks – 9. To Sleep – 10. Despite and Still – 11. The Suicide in the Copse – 12. Frightened Men – 13. A Stranger at the Party – 14. The Oath – 15. Language of the Seasons – 16. Mid-Winter Waking – 17. The Rock at the Corner –18. The Beach – 19. The Villagers and Death – 20. The Door – 21. Under the Pot –22. Through Nightmare – 23. To Lucia – 24. Death by Drums – 25. She Tells Her Love while Half Asleep – 26. Instructions to the Orphic Adept – 27. Theseus and Ariadne – 28. Lament for Pasiphaë – 29. The Twelve Days of Christmas – 30. Cold Weather Proverb – 31. To Juan at the Winter Solstice – SATIRES AND GROTESQUES: 32. Dream of a Climber – 33. The Persian Version – 34. The Weather of Olympus – 35. Apollo of the Physiologists – 36. The Oldest Soldier –37. Grotesques i–v – 38. The Eugenist – 39.1805 – 40. At the Savoy Chapel

Notes: Impression 2nd April 1946 Number of copies: 4,387.

Drafts of poem 31 (“To Juan at the Winter Solstice”) were reproduced in facsimile in P. J. Croft’s Autograph Poetry of the English Language (London: Cassell, 1973), II, 182–183.

A58b. First American edition ([1946]):

POEMS | 1938–1945 | [double rule] | By | Robert Graves| [double rule] | NEW YORK | CREATIVE AGE PRESS

Collation: [1]–[2]8[3] l0[4]8, 34 leaves.

p.[i] POEMS | 1938–1945 | [double rule]; p.[ii] blank; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] copyright, designer’s and printer’s notices; p.[v] FOREWORD; p.[vi] blank; pp.[vii]–[ix] CONTENTS; p.[x] blank; p.[1] POEMS; p.[2] blank; pp.3–42 text; p.[43] SATIRES AND GROTESQUES; p.[44] blank; pp.45–58 text.

21.4 × 13.8 cm. Bulk: 0.5/1.1 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. Cream wove endpapers. Bound in red cloth; front and back blank; spine stamped in silver, top to bottom: POEMS 1938–1945 [floral decoration] Robert Graves [floral decoration] CREATIVE AGE PRESS [floral decoration]

Price: $2.00. Number of copies: 5,500. Published 3 June 1946 in white dust-jacket printed in black, grey and blue.

Note: Impression: 2nd, 1967. 2,000 copies at $3.95. Published 15 August 1967 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux who had taken over Creative Age Press.