Bayley Peter Jun (1 results)

12mo. (15 x 10 cm). pp.231. Contemporary calf sometime rebacked with mismatching boards, spine ruled in blind and with red morocco label lettered in gilt. With a neat presentation to f.f.e.p. reading: "Miss Martha Dana Farrar - from her Grand Father. December 25th, 1842", and an additional old ownership inscription of James M. Dorsey to title-page. Contents toned and and somewhat soiled (mainly the 20 pages). Peter Baylet (bap. 1778, d. 1823) first published Poems, London, 1803, a collection which reflects a profound and early admiration of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads; unwilling to be publicly associated with those writers, however (Francis Jeffrey had just commenced his attacks on the 'Lake school'), Bayley presented an imitation of Wordsworth's 'Idiot Boy' as a burlesque. Wordsworth and Coleridge responded by assisting Robert Southey in writing a ferocious review of the volume for the Annual Review. Bayley had written other poetry, but this review, along with financial security on his father's death, subdued his literary ambitions (ONDB). A scarce volume.