Poems
Dublin, James Duffy, 1864 (first edition).
Octavo, [viii] (last blank), 234 (last blank), [1] (publisher's advertisement for 'The First Temptation') pages.
Original blind-decorated cloth lettered and decorated in gilt on the spine and front cover, all edges gilt (top edge slightly marked); cloth lightly rubbed and bumped at the extremities, with minimal wear to the rear joint and the head of the spine; short tear to the head of the rear joint neatly sealed; inner hinges cracked (but the binding remains firm); first and last pages a little tanned by the acidic endpapers; one opening unevenly tanned by an old acidic bookmark (no longer present); minimal signs of use and age; overall, an excellent copy.
Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde (circa 1821-1896) was an influential Irish poet, translator and feminist, and the mother of Oscar Wilde (this book is dedicated 'to my sons Willie and Oscar Wilde'. 'From 1846 she began to contribute prose (as "John Fanshawe Ellis") and verse (as "Speranza") to the "Nation", where on 23 January 1847 her poem "The stricken land" (retitled "The famine year") was the great famine's first major poetic response. It indicted her own Anglo-Irish landlord class in terms used in Longfellow's anti-slavery poems ... ' ('Dictionary of Irish Biography'). This volume is a collection of her poems from 'Nation' (including 'The Famine Year', pages 5-8).
Item #129187
Sold