1914 by Rupert Brooke first edition 1915 *Soldier Poet Richard Dennys copy*

BROOKE, Rupert. 1914 and Other Poems. 
Ownership of fallen soldier poet Richard Molesworth Dennys.
 
London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1915.

Octavo, [vi], 64 pp., with frontispiece portrait of Brooke (dated 1913). Original dark blue cloth, paper spine label; Complete Press imprint. An unsophisticated wartime binding, rubbed and marked, spine label browned and chipped, corners worn; internally foxing throughout, heavier to preliminaries and portrait.  Overall, good to very good.  Front free endpaper inscribed in ink: “R. M. Dennys, with ‘old’ love, from Aunt B., June 1915.”
 
First edition of Brooke’s posthumous wartime volume, containing the sequence of patriotic sonnets that made him the poetic voice of the early war, including “Peace,” “Safety,” and “The Dead.” This copy is distinguished by its contemporary gift inscription to Captain Richard Molesworth Dennys (1884–1916), poet, artist, and officer of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Dennys was commissioned in 1914, served on the Western Front, and was mortally wounded on the Somme in July 1916; his own poems were published posthumously in 1917 under the title 'There is no death' and he penned the poignant poem 'Come when it may'.
 
The inscription dates from June 1915, only weeks after Brooke’s death in the Aegean and shortly before Dennys himself went to France, to meet a similar fate. It represents a poignant association between two soldier-poets of the Great War.