The Poetry of the Fields: Passages from the Poets Descriptive of Pastoral Scenes

Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co, 1867. Leather bound. Very good. Leather bound. Poetry of the Fields offers a feast of poems from Shakespeare and Shelley, Wordsworth and Burns, and many other illustrious pens, all writing in praise of nature's pastures and their denizens: skylarks and blossoms, grasshoppers and daffodils, blackbirds and primroses, and even fairies. This collection includes two poems, one of which is the fairy-full "Queen Mab," by the radical Duchess of Newcastle Margaret "Mad Madge" Cavendish (1623-1673), poet, science fiction writer, playwright, scientist, and philosopher. Published in 1867, this edition is bound in full leather and lettered so as to make the title a field full of foliage, flowers, and feathered friends in its own right, stamped in glorious gilt to both covers. Illustrated throughout in frontispiece, pictorial title page, and two tissue-guarded engravings, this is a stunning ode to field and pasture both within and without.

7 7/8" X 5 3/8". xv, [ii], 18-128pp. Bound in full brown morocco leather, with pastureland-embellished title in gilt and bordered decoratively in dark brown to both boards, with spine lettered in gilt with gilt leaf compartments. All edges gilt. Moderate wear to binding, with scuffing and edgewear, bumping to corners, and scattered rubbing to edges and extremities. Lacking blank leaf preceding half-title. Binding is firm and sound, text block tight. Foxing to pages throughout, with toning to tissue-guards, else unmarked. Illustrated in 4 tissue-guarded plates.