The loves of the angels, a poem

London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1823. First edition, 8vo, pp. [5], viii-x, 148, [2] ads; original blue paper-covered boards, brown paper shelfback, printed paper label on spine; joints cracked and chipped, the binding shaken; a good copy at best. Having returned from his exile in France in 1823, Moore completed The Loves of the Angels, "his last long poem, interconnected confessional narratives about three angels who fall in love with mortal women and become caught in mortality themselves. Although the tension between the spiritual and the explicitly sensual is resolved in accord with the morality of Moore’s (truncated) time, the theme of angels desiring physical union shocked orthodox Christians and caused enough stir to guarantee sales. Moore accommodated his critics in the fifth edition of the book (1823) by turning his Christian angels into Moslem angels, adding bookish footnotes to explain and support the Levantine substance. The poem is redeemed by the separation of the real and the ideal, and, like Shelley and Keats, Moore is successful in making earthly life spiritually acceptable. Music becomes the link between love and religion, and Moore’s musical expression reiterates the Romantic theme in tones alternating between melancholy and delight" (poetryfoundation[dot]org). (Inventory #: 66906)