COLLECTED POEMS

First hardcover edition. Limited edition, signed by the author. Quarter blue grained calf over French marbled paper-covered boards, lettered in gilt to the spine, in matching marbled card slipcase. Top edges gilt. Printed by the St Edmundsbury Press in Bury St Edmunds on Supreme Book Wove paper; bound by Hunter & Foulis & Co Ltd, Edinburgh. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean and bright throughout. In the near fine slipcase, lightly rubbed to spine tips and corners. An uncommonly sharp and fresh example.

Issued in an edition of 112 hand-numbered copies, signed by Geoffrey Hill, of which copies I-XII were reserved for the author and publishers. This is copy numbered 86. This, Hill's first 'Collected', was first issued in paperback format the year before the trade hardback and this limited signed edition. The volume reprints all the poems from the five individual books of verse he had so far published, with the addition of the three 'Hymns to Our Lady of Chartres', printed here for the first time. The collection is dedicated to the memory of the poet's parents. "He is a profound genius, the best poet writing in England. [...] He makes exquisite, immaculate music." (Michael Longley, in The Guardian).