Lamia; Isabella; The Eve of Saint Agnes & Other Poems

1928

Special Collections PR4832 1928. Reproduced by permission of the Robert Gibbings Estate and the Heather Chalcroft Literary Agency

Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire: The Golden Cockerel Press

By 1927, Moira and Robert Gibbings had four children, with twins Lawrence and Finnbar arriving in March. Life at Waltham St Lawrence, although basic, was seemingly idyllic – the house was surrounded by beautiful gardens – and GCP was receiving an international reputation for the quality and artistry of its publications. Gibbings was, however, feeling the pressure and often left Moira to cope with the children and the business on her own while he visited London, Ireland and Europe. This book, a selection of John Keats’s poems, was published in November 1928 and is thought to contain some of Gibbings’s best work. The Eve of St. Agnes (1819) is one of Keats’s finest and chronicles the tale of the medieval maiden Madeline who retires to bed semi-naked to dream of her forbidden love, Porphyro.