Title-page

H. G. Fell

Wood-engraving

7¼ x 5 inches

Yeat’s Poems, title-page

Though commissioned by Fisher Unwin on Yeats’s suggestion, Fell did not win favour with the poet when he saw the finished title-page and binding. The binding was replaced by Althea Gyles’s more elaborate work. Fell’s pictorial title-page only bears a peripheral relationship to the verse, and is better understood as a piece of Pre-Raphaelite fantasy which continues the chivalric imagery on the front cover. [Commentary continues below.]

Scanned image by a private collector and text by Simon Cooke. [Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]