A Word Carved on a Sill
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1956.
First edition. Lilac paper covered boards, lettered black, in matching dustwrapper. Inscribed by Wain "Robert Graves from John Wain, Deyà mcmlvi 'And strictly meditate the thankless Muse'". A very good copy in a very good dustwrapper.
An excellent association copy, inscribed by Wain for his fellow poet, from whose verse he borrowed the title for the book.
Wain's quotation of Graves, however, was inaccurate, and his visit to see him in Deyá when this book was inscribed was "ostensibly to apologize for misquoting a line of Graves in the title of his recently published second volume of poetry" (Between Moon And Moon: Selected Letters Of Robert Graves, 1946-1972).
The offending couplet should read "Yet love survives, the word carved on a sill / Under antique dread of the headman's axe", and comes from Graves's poem 'End Of Play'. The quotation in Wain's inscription is from Milton's Lycidas.
Stock ID: 44574
