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University of Virginia Library

Collected poems

By Austin Dobson: Ninth edition

Dobson, Austin (1840-1921)

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[To you I sing, whom towns immure]

OLD-WORLD IDYLLS

PROVERBS IN PORCELAIN

VIGNETTES IN RHYME

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES

AT THE SIGN OF THE LYRE

MEMORIAL VERSES

FABLES OF LITERATURE AND ART

VERS DE SOCIÉTÉ

PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES

ESSAYS IN OLD FRENCH FORMS

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FOR A COPY OF “THE COMPLEAT ANGLER”

VERSES READ AT THE DINNER OF THE OMAR KHAYYÁM CLUB

VERSES WRITTEN FOR THE MENU OF THE OMAR KHAYYÁM CLUB

FOR “AN APPENDIX TO THE ROWFANT LIBRARY”

FOR A CHARITY ANNUAL

FOR A COPY OF “THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD”

AFTER A HOLIDAY

THE BALLAD OF THE BORE

TO THE LADY DOROTHY NEVILL

TO EDMUND GOSSE

FOR LOCKER'S “LONDON LYRICS”

TO BRANDER MATTHEWS

TO THE LATE H. C. BUNNER

TO RICHARD WATSON GILDER

“GOOD LUCK TO YOUR FISHING!”

1.

A BALLAD OF ANTIQUARIES

2.

A SECOND BALLAD OF ANTIQUARIES

LUDIBRIA VENTIS

ADDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

[In after days when grasses high]

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537

TO RICHARD WATSON GILDER

[_]

[With a Volume of Verses]

Old friends are best! And so to you
Again I send, in closer throng,
No unfamiliar shapes of song,
But those that once you liked and knew.

You surely will not do them wrong;
For are you not an old friend, too?—
Old friends are best.

Old books, old wine, old Nankin blue;—
All things, in short, to which belong
The charm, the grace that Time makes strong,—
All these I prize, but (entre nous)
Old friends are best!