Collected poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Collected poems

By Austin Dobson: Ninth edition

Dobson, Austin (1840-1921)

[epigraph]

[section]

[To you I sing, whom towns immure]

OLD-WORLD IDYLLS

PROVERBS IN PORCELAIN

VIGNETTES IN RHYME

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES

AT THE SIGN OF THE LYRE

[“At the Sign of the Lyre,”]

THE LADIES OF ST. JAMES'S

THE OLD SEDAN CHAIR

TO AN INTRUSIVE BUTTERFLY

THE CURÉ'S PROGRESS

THE MASQUE OF THE MONTHS

TWO SERMONS

“AU REVOIR”

THE CARVER AND THE CALIPH

TO AN UNKNOWN BUST IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

TO A MISSAL OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

A REVOLUTIONARY RELIC

A MADRIGAL

A SONG TO THE LUTE

A GARDEN SONG

A CHAPTER OF FROISSART

TO THE MAMMOTH-TORTOISE

A ROMAN ROUND-ROBIN

VERSES TO ORDER

A LEGACY

“LITTLE BLUE-RIBBONS”

LINES TO A STUPID PICTURE

THE COLLECTOR TO HIS LIBRARY

THE BOOK-PLATE'S PETITION

THE WATER OF GOLD

A FANCY FROM FONTENELLE

FABLES OF LITERATURE AND ART

TALES IN RHYME

VERS DE SOCIÉTÉ

VARIA

PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES

ESSAYS IN OLD FRENCH FORMS

CARMINA VOTIVA

LUDIBRIA VENTIS

LATER POEMS

ADDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

[In after days when grasses high]

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265

A ROMAN ROUND-ROBIN

This piece of flippancy first appeared in the Spectator for 13th November 1875, and was pleasantly rallied in a later number by the present Laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin.

(“HIS FRIENDS” TO QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS)

“Hæc decies repetita [non] placebit.” —Ars Poetica.

Flaccus, you write us charming songs;
No bard we know possesses
In such perfection what belongs
To brief and bright addresses;

No man cay say that Life is short
With mien so little fretful;
No man to Virtue's paths exhort
In phrases less regretful;

Or touch, with more serene distress,
On Fortune's ways erratic;
And then delightfully digress
From Alp to Adriatic:

All this is well, no doubt, and tends
Barbarian minds to soften;
But, Horace—we, we are your friends—
Why tell us this so often?

266

Why feign to spread a cheerful feast,
And then thrust in our faces
These barren scraps (to say the least)
Of Stoic common-places?

Recount, and welcome, your pursuits:
Sing Lydë's lyre and hair;
Sing drums and Berecynthian flutes;
Sing parsley-wreaths; but spare,—

O, spare to sing, what none deny,
That things we love decay;
That Time and Gold have wings to fly;—
That all must Fate obey!

Or bid us dine—on this day week—
And pour us, if you can,
As soft and sleek as girlish cheek,
Your inmost Cæcuban;—

Of that we fear not overplus;
But your didactic ‘tap’—
Forgive us!—grows monotonous;
Nunc vale! Verbum sap.

University of Virginia Library

A ROMAN ROUND-ROBIN This piece of flippancy first appeared in the Spectator for 13th November 1875, and was pleasantly rallied in a later number by the present Laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin.

(“HIS FRIENDS” TO QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS)

A ROMAN ROUND-ROBIN

This piece of flippancy first appeared in the Spectator for 13th November 1875, and was pleasantly rallied in a later number by the present Laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin.