The Shield of Achilles

First UK edition. Tall 8vo. 80pp. Publisher's maroon cloth, lettered and ruled in gilt to spine. Ex-Library copy with the usual stamps and markings on prelims., sans dust jacket. Boards covered in protective, adhesive plastic, with library label attached to lower spine, and top edge of upper board sustaining some bruising. Hinges weak in a couple of places, else tight and clean. 1/4,000 copies printed.

Preceded by the Random House U.S. edition, published earlier in the year. Winner of the 1956 National Book Award for Poetry. Collection of twenty-eight poems arranged in the manner of a three-part symphonic suite, comprising pastoral ('Bucolics'), an improvised scherzo ('In Sunshine and in Shadow'), and a devotional sequence ('Horae Canonicae'). While a number had previously appeared in British and American periodicals, the rest are printed here for the first time.

[Bloomfield & Mendelson A35b]