Collected poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Collected poems

By Austin Dobson: Ninth edition

Dobson, Austin (1840-1921)

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530

[_]

[With a Memoir of Horace Walpole]

Had I but Walpole's wit, I'd write
A quatrain here to-day
Should turn the wig of Prior white,
And make e'en Horace gray;

Or had I Stanhope's pen (the same
That once he lent to Young),

The allusion is to the admirable epigram attributed to Young, and written with a pencil borrowed from Lord Chesterfield:—

“Accept a miracle instead of wit,—
See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ.”

I would as neat a couplet frame
As e'er was said or sung;

But since I've not, I can't, you know;
The page must go without it;
This is my latest gift; and so . . .
And so, that's all about it!