THE REDRESS OF POETRY. Oxford Lectures.

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Publisher's original black cloth with white titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A lovely fine copy, the binding square and tight, the cloth bright and fresh. The contents, with the small ownership signature and date of Toronto poet, author (and founder of the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors), Greg Gatenby to the front endpaper are otherwise clean and bright throughout. Complete with the fine original dustwrapper that remains without fading, loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£15.99 net to the lower front flap).

Signed by Seamus Heaney in black ink on the title page. 'The Redress of Poetry' collects ten of the fifteen lectures delivered by Seamus Heaney during his tenure as Oxford Professor of Poetry (1989-94). The title, reflects the overarching theme of poetry as spiritual redress, as a counterweight to the oppressive forces exerted by the quotidian (it is a theme running through 'The Spirit Level', the collection of poems Heaney published the following year). The poets and poems examined span four centuries, from Christopher Marlowe and George Herbert through to Philip Larkin and Elizabeth Bishop, via Wilde, MacDiarmaid, Yeats, and Dylan Thomas.