To Greet the New Year 2025

As well as being a minor poet, Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was an editor, critic and essayist, friend of Keats and Shelley, one of those present on the beach at Shelley’s funeral. Two of his poems have survived particularly well, the open minded Abou Ben Adham and this.

Jenny Kiss’d Me concerns affection, on what one might understand by success and failure both personally and in social terms, on passing time and age, and on the joy of spontaneity. All is said in eight lines, laid out here with proper deliberation for the reader.

This is probably our 31st New Year Book, and it is time we produced an illustrated bibliography of them all.

The paper is Battersea Antique Cream from John Purcell Paper, in an edition of 200 copies. It is hand set in 18pt Garamond italic, using such of the range of ligatures that fit the poem. The necessarily brief introduction records the original publication in 1838 and his rewriting of it six years later.