Author: DRUMMOND (William), of Hawthornden:
Title: Poems.
Description: London: Printed for J. Jeffry..., 1790. Small 8vo, 157 x 99 mms., pp. viii,326, contemporary tree calf, black leather label (chipped); front joint cracked (but firm), top and base of spine chipped, but a reasonably good copy with the bookplate "James Nisbet Williams/ Private Library" on the front paste-down endpaper. William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649) inherited his father's property in 1610 and proceeded to live the life of a bucolic gentleman, spending his time reading and writing and published his first book Teares on the Death of Meliades in 1613. There is no indication in this printing of the text used for the poems, but it probably derives ultimately from Poems by William Drummond of Hawthorne-denne published in 1616. In his ODNB life of Drummond Michael Spiller comments, "Once Drummond's use of his sources is understood, he does indeed appear to be a Mannerist poet, and that enables him to exhibit to his readers wit, sensuous feeling, and fanciful and mystical imagery, all in the confessional mode of Petrarchist verse."

Keywords: poetry Scotland


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