Collected Poems

PREFACE

TO THE NINTH EDITION

To the fifth edition of 1902 was added a selection from a little volume entitled Carmina Votiva, printed for private circulation in July 1901; while, in the sixth edition of 1905, the notes-especially those to the "Ballad of Beau Brocade". -were extended. Το the eighth edition, under the heading Ludibria Ventis, was subjoined a fresh section of occasional pieces, written for the most part by request. Fourteen of these had already been published in the volume of prose and verse called De Libris, 1908, 1911; and were reproduced with the concurrence of Messrs. Macmillan & Co. A further group of twenty-seven later poems, additions and translations, is now included in the present issue.

AUSTIN DOBSON

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To you I sing, whom towns immure,
And bonds of toil hold fast and sure ;-
To you across whose aching sight
Come woodlands bathed in April light
And dreams of pastime premature.

And you, O Sad, who still endure
Some wound that only Time can cure,—
To you, in watches of the night,—
To you I sing!

But most to you with eyelids pure,
Scarce witting yet of love or lure ;-
To you, with bird-like glances bright,
Half-paused to speak, half-poised in flight ;-
O English Girl, divine, demure,

TO YOU I sing!

"le ne puis tenir registre de ma vie par mes actions; fortune les met trop bas: ie le tiens par mes fantasies."

-MONTAIGNE.

Too low my lot for lofty deed:
I pipe but fancies on a reed.

CONTENTS

OLD-WORLD IDYLLS :-

A Dead Letter

A Gentleman of the Old School

A Gentlewoman of the Old School.

The Ballad of "Beau Brocade"

Une Marquise

The Story of Rosina