Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, by John Clare, Taylor and Hessey, 1820

A scarce early edition of Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery by John Clare, one of the most distinctive voices of early nineteenth-century English poetry. First published in 1820, this work established Clare's reputation as the "Northamptonshire Peasant", offering vivid and deeply personal depictions of rural landscape, labour, and village life at a time of profound agricultural and social change. Issued here as a third edition from the same year as the first printing by Taylor and Hessey, the volume represents an early and important appearance of Clare's debut collection, whose honest and unadorned style would later earn him lasting recognition as a key figure in English pastoral poetry.

Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, by John Clare, a Northamptonshire Peasant.

Printed for Taylor and Hessey, Fleet Street; and E. Drury, Stamford (London), 1820. Third edition (issued the same year as the first printing - John Clare's first book).

A good full calf leather hardback with blind stamped armorial to the covers, and tooled gilt decoration to spine, with raised bands. Joints are worn and rubbed, but holding. Cover edges are rubbed and scuffed, with wear to leather. Edges of boards with gilt decoration - now rubbed.

Endpapers and first and last few text pages with some foxed spotting, and with occasional light scattered spots in the text. Overall the text is bright and clean and presents nicely.

An imperfect, but still very desirable, copy of an uncommon edition.

Text in English.

viii + xxiii + 220pp. There are no pages numbered 153-164pp, but this is a known printer's numbering error, and the text is complete as issued (and matches the contents page).