SECTION A: Books written, co-written or translated by Robert Graves

A128 POEMS ABOUT LOVE [1969]

a. First edition:

Robert Graves’ | Poems | About Love | [double curlicue] | DOUBLEDAY AND COMPANY, INC., GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK

Collation: [1] –[8]12, 96 leaves.

p.[1] Robert Graves’ Poems About Love; p.[2] blank; p.[3] title-page; p.[4] LC card, copyright, rights reservation and printing notices; pp.5–7 Foreword; p.[8] blank; pp.9–15 Contents; p.[16] blank; pp. 17–181 text; p.[182] blank; pp. 183–189 Index; pp.[190]–[192]blank.

23.2 × 15.2 cm. Bulk: 1.4/2.0 cm. White wove paper; top and bottom edges trimmed. Wove endpapers, green outer and white inner sides. Bound in maroon cloth; back blank; front stamped in gold: [all within curly monogram design encorporating ‘R’ of first line:] ROBERT | GRAVES’ | POEMS | ABOUT | LOVE; spine stamped in gold, top to bottom: ROBERT GRAVES’ POEMS ABOUT LOVE [upright:] DOUBLEDAY

Price: $5.00. Number of copies undetermined. Published 14 February 1969 in white dust-jacket printed in black, dark green, red and light green. Jacket design by Paul Bacon.

Contents: Foreword – I: The Finding of Love – One Hard Look – Sullen Moods – Love Without Hope – The Troll’s Nosegay – Unicorn and the White Doe – The Hills of May – Lost Love – Love in Barrenness – Song of Contrariety – Full Moon – Vanity – Pure Death – Sick Love – Ulysses – The Succubus – The Christmas Robin – Fact of the Act – At First Sight – Down, Wanton, Down! – Never Such Love – A Jealous Man – The Foreboding – With Her Lips Only – II: On Portents – The Terraced Valley – Like Snow – End of Play – A Love Story – Dawn Bombardment – The Thieves – To Sleep – The Oath – Mid-Winter Waking – The Door – Through Nightmare – She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep – Theseus and Ariadne – To Juan at the Winter Solstice – To Be Called a Bear – Beauty in Trouble – The Song of Blodeuwedd – Lament for Pasiphaë – Counting the Beats – The Young Cordwainer – The Survivor – III: Questions in a Wood – The Portrait – The Straw – Hercules at Nemea – Dialogue on the Headland – Cat-Goddesses – The Blue-Fly – A Lost Jewel – The Window Sill – Spoils – Rhea – The Face in the Mirror – Forbidden Words – Possibly – A Slice of Wedding Cake – Call It a Good Marriage – Around the Mountain – IV: Lyceia – Symptoms of Love – The Sharp Ridge – Under the Olives – The Visitation – Fragment – The Falcon Woman – Troughs of Sea – The Death Grapple – The Starred Coverlet – Turn of the Moon – Seldom Yet Now – Song: A Lost World – The Dangerous Gift – Twice of the Same Fever – V: Ruby and Amethyst – Recognition – Variables of Green – The Meeting – Not at Home – Horizon – Golden Anchor – Lion Lover – The Winged Heart – In Her Praise – A Restless Ghost – Between Moon and Moon – Beware, Madam! – Acrobats – Ouzo Unclouded – The Broken Girth – Inkidoo and the Queen of Babel – Three Songs for the Lute: I. Truth is Poor Physic – II. In Her Only Way – III. Hedges Freaked With Snow – A Time of Waiting – Expect Nothing – No Letter – The Why of the Weather – In Time – Jugum Improbum – At Best, Poets – She is No Liar – The Leap – Judgement of Paris – Man Does, Woman Is – The Three-Faced – Dazzle of Darkness – Myrrhina – Food of the Dead – I Will Write – VI: Bird of Paradise – The Metaphor – Secrecy – Joseph and Mary – The Oleaster – Non Cogunt Astra – Song: Sword and Rose – Endless Pavement – In Disguise – A Measure of Casualness – In Time of Absence – The Green Castle – Not to Sleep – The Hearth – The Beds of Grainne and Diarmuid – The Black Goddess – Between Trains – To the Teumessian Vixen – The Hung Wu Vase – La Mejicana – Lamia in Love (revision) – Song: All I Tell You From My Heart – The Undead – Grace Notes – VII: Above the Edge of Doom – Wild Cyclamen – Batxóca – The Snap-Comb Wilderness – Change – A Court of Love – Black – Between Hyssop and Axe – Gold and Malachite – Ambience – The Vow – The Frog and the Golden Ball – Those Who Came Short – Whole Love – This Holy Month – The Blow – The Impossible – The Fetter – Iron Palace – True Joy – The Hidden Garden – Son Altesse – Everywhere is Here – Song: The Far Side of Your Moon – Deliverance – Conjunction – Nothing Now Astonishes – Postscript – VIII: Cock in Pullet’s Feathers – Arrears of Moonlight – What Did You Say? – Lure of Murder – The Gorge – Extacy of Chaos – Stolen Jewel – The Snapped Thread – Fortunate Child – Loving True, Flying Blind – The Near– Eclipse – Dancing Flame – Birth of Angels – On Giving – IX: The Perfectionists – Lion-Gentle – The Word – The Necklace – A Bracelet – While the Sky Blackens – Sun-Face and Moon-Face – Prison Walls – A Dream of Hell – Our Self – Hooded Flame – Crown of Stars – Pride of Love – Song: The Palm Tree – If and When – In Perspective – Injuries – The Bower Bird – Mist – Bites and Kisses – Spite of Mirrors – Her Brief Withdrawal – The Crane – Strangeness – She to Him – Song: Cherries or Lilies – For Ever – Song: Dew-Drop and Diamond – To Be in Love – The Olive Yard – The Yet Unsayable – The Narrow Sea – Within Reason – Index.

Notes: Impression: 2nd, lacking the first edition notice on p.[4].

A publisher’s complimentary copy is seen with white wove endpapers on both sides.

A128b. First British impression ([1969]):

Title-page as A128a except CASSELL ∙ LONDON for Doubleday.

Remainder as A128a, printed in 12s but gathered in 24s, and p.[4] copyright, restiction and publication notices.

Price: 30s. Number of copies unknown. Published 17 November 1969 in white dust-jacket printed in black, royal purple and yellow-orange. Jacket design by Brian Roll.

Notes: The ‘press figure’: J50 at the lower left of p. 189 is the same as that found in A128a.

Statement on p.[4] says: Reprinted offset in Great Britain by the Camelot Press Ltd., London and Southampton.

A128c. Second British impression ([1987]):

Title-page as A128b.

p. [1] POEMS ABOUT LOVE; p. [2] blank; p. [3] title-page; p. [4] British Library cataloguing data, copyright, rights reservation and printing notices; p. [5] - [7] FOREWORD; p. [8] blank; p. [9] - [15] CONTENTS; p. [16] blank; p. 17-181 text; p. [182] blank; p. 183-188 INDEX TO FIRST LINES OF POEMS; pp. [189] - [190] blank.

21.6 × 13.4 cm. Bulk: 1.0/1.6 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. White wove endpapers. Bound in cloth-effect red paper-covered boards; front and back blank; spine stamped in gold from top to bottom: ROBERT GRAVES POEMS ABOUT LOVE [at foot, upright:] CASSELL

Price: £11.95. Nunber of copies: underernined. Published in 1987 in white paper dust-jacket printed in magenta and dull gold.

Notes: The book has been reset. Statement on p.[4] says: Typeset by Gloucester Typesetting Services.

There was a second impression in 1993 in white paper covers printed overall in magenta; lettering in dull gold and white; ISBN number and bar code in magenta. Price: £8.99.

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