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A charming pocket book, hard cover, Gray paper covered boards with paper labels to the spine and front board. Publication date 1916. Nice condition with gift inscription inside front cover from Harry, Christmas 1920. Printed by Thomas B Mosher. On handmade Van Gelder paper. Limited to 950 copies.
Bird of the bitter bright grey golden morn
Scarce risen upon the dusk of dolorous years,
First of us all and sweetest singer born
Whose far shrill note the world of new men hears
Cleave the cold shuddering shade as twilight clears;
When song new-born put off the old world's attire
And felt its tune on her changed lips expire
Writ foremost on the roll of them that came
Fresh girt for service of the latter lyre,
Villon, our sad bad glad mad brother's name!
Villon was a great innovator in terms of the themes of poetry and, through these themes, a great renovator of the forms. He understood perfectly the medieval courtly ideal, but he often chose to write against the grain, reversing the values and celebrating the lowlifes destined for the gallows, falling happily into parody or lewd jokes, and constantly innovating in his diction and vocabulary; a few minor poems make extensive use of Parisian thieves' slang. Still Villon's verse is mostly about his own life, a record of poverty, trouble, and trial which was certainly shared by his poems' intended audience.
CONDITION: Hard cover, published 1920, pocket sized book, page edges are ragged, clean, strong spine, light wear to board edges, delightfully clean.
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