8vo. ix, 181pp, [3]. With an initial leaf of publisher's advertisements, half-title and a terminal leaf of meter explanations for three poems. Contemporary navy paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Lightly rubbed and marked, with chipping to head and foot of spine. Contemporary inked ownership inscription of H.P. Addleshaw, Sept. 2nd 1889, to half-title. Small manuscript addition to terminal leaf of meter notation. Spotting to initial and terminal leaves.

The first edition of George Meredith's (1828-1909) return to poetic endeavours in the 1880s, including substantial new compositions, such as 'Melampus', 'The Day of the Daughter of Hades', and 'Earth and Man', and several poems previously published in periodicals, in particular, 'The Lark Ascending'.