The Sensitive Plant
- London: Robt. Riviere & Son, 1910
London: Robt. Riviere & Son, 1910. A fine example. Square sixteenmo (5 1/16 x 3 15/16 inches; 129 x 100 mm.). 46, [2, blank] pp. Title-page and initial letters printed in red and black. Handsomely bound ca. 1910 by Rivière & Son, stamp-signed in gilt on lower turn-in. Full dark blue crushed levant morocco, covers bordered in gilt surrounding an ornate floral design stamped in gilt, each with twelve inlaid red morocco flowers, spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board edges and turn-ins, cream paper liners and end-leaves, top edge gilt. Neat ink inscription on front free end-paper and a small gold bookplate.
Shelley’s poem, The Sensitive Plant, is a beautiful and tragic poem commemorating the brevity of life and immortality of cyclical nature. Written after death of his son, while Percy and Mary Shelley struggled with their grief in Pisa, the poem consists of four stanzas with three sections charting the change of seasons. It is set in a garden bursting with blooms, but highlights the sensitive plant—a mimosa—with its humble leafy foliage. Human will is nothing in the face of the impartial power of nature and time. First published in Prometheus Unbound and Other Poems (1820), here it has been reproduced with a delicate binding to match its subject.
"For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower;
Radiance and odour are not its dower;
It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full,
It desires what it has not, the Beautiful!"
“The Riviere Bindery was one of the most notable and prolific shops in London's West End from about 1840 through 1939” (Princeton). Bath-based Bayntun Bindery acquired the firm in 1939, transforming into the “Bayntun-Riviere bindery,” which is still in existence and family owned.
Shelley’s poem, The Sensitive Plant, is a beautiful and tragic poem commemorating the brevity of life and immortality of cyclical nature. Written after death of his son, while Percy and Mary Shelley struggled with their grief in Pisa, the poem consists of four stanzas with three sections charting the change of seasons. It is set in a garden bursting with blooms, but highlights the sensitive plant—a mimosa—with its humble leafy foliage. Human will is nothing in the face of the impartial power of nature and time. First published in Prometheus Unbound and Other Poems (1820), here it has been reproduced with a delicate binding to match its subject.
"For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower;
Radiance and odour are not its dower;
It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full,
It desires what it has not, the Beautiful!"
“The Riviere Bindery was one of the most notable and prolific shops in London's West End from about 1840 through 1939” (Princeton). Bath-based Bayntun Bindery acquired the firm in 1939, transforming into the “Bayntun-Riviere bindery,” which is still in existence and family owned.