JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)

The first edition of Keats' second volume of poems, uncut and in the original boards with the paper label on the spine and eight pages of publisher's advertisements at the end. In addition to the title poems, the volume contains five odes, "Hyperion," and other works. "Lamia," writt en in 1819, is a narrative poem based on a story from Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy; "Isabella," composed in 1818, is a narrative poem based on a story in Boccaccio's Decameron. Charles Lamb pronounced "Isabella" to be the best work in the 1820 collection. Although it was well received by the critics, sales of Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems were slow. Several months after its publication, Keats left for Rome, where he died early the next year.