"THE GREENEST PLACES I COULD FIND / WHERE UNDERWOODS ARE FREE…"

BLUNDEN, Edmund. Autograph quotation signed. No place, no date. Unlined index card measuring 3 by 5 inches. $750.

Autograph quotation from an early poem, inscribed: “with best wishes from Edmund Blunden.”

The quotation, identified simply as "[from an early poem]," reads: "The greenest places I could find, / Where underwoods are free / To flourish like the taller kind, / Seemed homes where she might be. / And nothing by the loitering brook / Or bee with question rude / Notice of my intrusion took / Or felt my solitude." Although underestimated as a war poet and overshadowed by his contemporaries Owen, Rosenberg, and Sassoon, Blunden established a reputation for himself through his 1928 Undertones of War, which was further enhanced by this comprehensive collection of his work. Ironically, it was Blunden's 1931 edition of Wilfred Owen's poetry that renewed an interest in his own work. "Blunden's war poems are more restrained, but his hatred of the war and grief for the dead were just as intense… He was unique among his fellow poets in acknowledging that there were moments of happiness amid the insensate slaughter" (Hamilton, 56).

Faintest fingerprints to poem, a bit of tape residue to verso of card. An about-fine inscribed autograph poem.