[CONCRETE POETRY] FINLAY, Ian Hamilton

Poems to Hear and See

New York: Macmillan, 1971. First Edition. First printing. Issue for Great Britain, with sticker price in pounds pasted over printed price on jacket. Square octavo. Tan cloth hardcover; dustjacket; [48]pp. A fine copy of the book, free of markings or noticeable wear. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped but with publisher's price stickered over with price of £1.5p; mildly rubbed and faded; Very Good.

This attempt to present Finlay's ground-breaking concrete poetry to a popular audience has frequently (and mistakenly) been catalogued as a children's book – it's not. It is, however, as critic William L. Fox noted in a contemporary review, a poorly-edited and blandly-conceived volume, guilty of "ineffective simplifications of Finlay's poems," with the end effect of "confirm[ing] the worst suspicion - that concrete poetry belongs only on calendars." (in Prairie Schooner, v.48 no.1, Spring 1974). Nonetheless an interesting blip in the poet's career, and quite uncommon.

Price: $200.00

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