Human Life. A Poem.

ROGERS, Samuel.

Published by Bensley and Son for John Murray, London, 1819

About this Item

Octavo (172 x 102mm), pp. 100. (A few light spots or marks, very light offsetting.) 19th-century British pebble-grained blue cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, all edges speckled red. (Extremities lightly rubbed, offsetting onto free endpapers, half-title, and final page, short split at head of upper joint.) A very good copy, retaining the half-title. Provenance: traces of early pencil signature on title and brackets added in pencil (vide infra) -- W.J. Hodges (late-19th-century ownership signature on title). ¶¶¶First octavo edition, first impression. Published by the poet Rogers (1763-1855) in his later years, 'Human Life' was the poem 'which [he] preferred to any of his writings. Detailing various scenes from cradle to grave in the life of a gentleman from a background similar to Rogers's own, the poem gave Rogers the opportunity to confront his own sufferings in a vicarious form. He never married, and there is a wistfulness in the delineation of domestic scenes' (ODNB). It was well-received by his contemporaries, and the Edinburgh Review praised it in the following words: '[t]hese are very sweet verses. They do not indeed stir the spirit like the strong lines of Byron, nor make our hearts dance within us, like the inspiring strains of Scott; But they come over us with a bewitching softness that, in certain moods, is still more delightful -- and soothe the troubled spirits with a refreshing sense of truth, purity, and elegance. They are pensive, rather than passionate; and more full of wisdom and tenderness than of high flights of fancy, or overwhelming bursts of emotion -- while they are moulded into grace, at least as much by the effect of the Moral beauties they disclose, as by the taste and judgment with which they are constructed' (vol. XXXI (1819), p. 325). This volume contains the eponymous poem 'Human Life' (p. [5]-66), followed by the author's Notes' on it (p. [67]-[81]), 'Lines Written at Pæstum March 4, 1815' (p. [83]-94), and 'The Boy of Egremond' (p. [95]-100). Human Life was first published in a quarto edition in early 1819 (Murray's records show that 750 copies were printed in January 1819), which is known in three states, and a putative first state posited by Simon Nowell-Smith in 'Note 251. Samuel Rogers. Human Life, 1819' (The Book Collector XIV (1965), pp. 362-365). The quarto edition was followed by an octavo edition, which appeared shortly afterwards in three states: a first impression of 4,000 copies printed by Bensley and Son in March 1819 (the present state), a second impression of 1,000 copies printed by Davison later in the same month, and a further 1011 copies printed by Bensley in April 1819. Nowell-Smith notes that the two Bensley printings are 'most easily distinguished by the addition of marginal brackets to mark rhymed triplets in "Human Life"' (p. 365), and it is interesting to note that an early owner of this copy has added in seven marginal brackets in pencil to identify these triplets. This first issue of the octavo edition was based on Nowell-Smith's Quarto iv, but also includes a note on rhymed triplets. ¶¶¶FURTHER INFORMATION: please contact us for further information about this item and prices for shipping.

Seller Inventory # 002195

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Human Life. A Poem.
• Publisher: Bensley and Son for John Murray, London
• Publication Date: 1819
• Binding: Original cloth
• Edition: First octavo
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • English Literature
  • Poetry