"HOW GOES IT, BOYS, / WHILE WE DIE HERE IN STENCH AND NOISE"

GRAVES, Robert. Country Sentiment. London: Martin Secker, (1920). Small octavo, original patterned boards, printed paper spine label, uncut, original dust jacket. $800.

First edition of this collection of poems, Graves' third volume of poems, dedicated to his wife Nancy Nicholson.

Robert Graves and Nancy Nicholson were married on January 23, 1918; "in 1919 (after Graves' demobilization) they moved into Dingle Cottage in John Masefield's garden on Boar's Hill near Oxford, and Graves began reading English at St John's. Graves' hopes for popular success as a poet faded after the poor reception given in 1920 to Country Sentiment, his third volume of poems" (ODNB). "Country Sentiment, Graves' fifth collection, of which he sent confident predictions to his friends, aimed to combine sweetness with satire; songs for Nancy, war-poems for Sassoon. It flopped" (Seymour, Robert Graves: Life on the Edge, 78). One of 1000 copies. Higginson A5.

Book near-fine, dust jacket lightly soiled, with a few short closed tears and toned spine, very good.