This particular copy of Poems by Robert Browning has a slightly more notable history than most literature paperbacks that circulate around college campuses. The title page bears the inscription of celebrated Massachusetts poet Melissa Green with the date 26 August 1978. As Green was a 1982 graduate of the Boston University graduate poetry program, this date means this would have been the copy she referenced during her time studying with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. Indeed, there is a note on the same page, seemingly taken down during seminar: "Walcott -- Every poem is a lie. A poet should ask himself, ‘how am I lying this time?’”
- Title: Poems of Robert Browning
- Editor: Donald Smalley
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
- Place: Boston
- Year: 1956
- Previous Owner: Melissa Green
- Length: 542pp
- Dimensions: 25” x 8.25 x 1.25”
- Condition: Cover somewhat worn, stained, and soiled. Pages generally clean. Some folds and small tears. Sporadic marginalia. All pages accounted for but some have come unglued.