John Milton (1608–1674) Poems, &c. upon several occasions...both English and Latin, &c. compos’d at several times: with a small tractate of education to Mr. Hartlib. (London: Thomas Dring, 1673). Ee.4.17, second front fly-leaf and title page.
This copy of Milton’s second edition of his shorter poems, published in 1673, was given as a gift to William Wordsworth by the Edinburgh antiquarian and bookseller, David Laing. The inscription reads: ‘To | William Wordsworth Esq. | as a slight token of respect | [signed with Laing’s monogram, ‘DL’]’. The first copy of Milton’s 1645 poems in this case (no. 13) also belonged to Wordsworth and is inscribed on its flyleaf by his friend John Peace. Milton was extremely important for the Romantic poets, both for his poetry and for his political example. Wordsworth begins his sonnet on London, ‘Milton! thou shoulds’t be living at this hour:| England hath need of thee’.