Rosemary and Pansies

by Bertram Dobell

ROSEMARY
AND PANSIES

⁠The salvage of vanished years,
⁠The record of moods passed by,
⁠Vain laughter and vainer tears,
⁠A smile followed fast by a sigh.

Ah yes! I own much contradiction's here,
And thought perchance not wholly sound or clear;
But youth with manhood's inconsistent still,
And manhood mocks at age's cautious chill:
Enough if through the whole there runs the thread
Of a soul resolved where conscience loads to tread.

ROSEMARY
AND PANSIES

BY

BERTRAM DOBELL.

 

"There's rosemary for you, that's for
remembrance: pray, love, remember:
and there's pansies, that's for thoughts"
Hamlet, Act iv. Scene 4

 

LONDON
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
77 CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C
MDCCCCIV

TO

ARTHUR H. BULLEN

I thought, old friend, a better gift to bring
 Than this poor garland, rather weeds than flowers,
 Not the rich product of calm leisured hours.
But such as I from toil and haste could wring;
Yet take it, since 'tis something of mine own.
 That bears at least the stamp of thought sincere.
 Which from no consequence recoils in fear.
But seeks for truth unveiled—and truth alone.

Like yours it is my greatest happiness
 To delve within the ancient mines of gold
 And disinter from dust, decay, and mould.
Long-buried treasures held in time's duresse;
 But here, a modern of the modern time,
 A spirit that questions all is in my rhyme.

All Nature's mirrored in the poet's eye,
Wherein the pageant of the Universe
Reflects itself in all its wondrous beauty,
That he may set forth its sublimity,
The unity beneath its transmutations,
And shew his less imaginative fellows
Something of that great vision he beholds.
He gazes steadily at all things human,
Ever intent to find the harmony
Which underlies life's many seeming discords.
He is an alchemist whose art indeed
Transmutes base metal into shining gold,
And in his brain's laboratory turns
Thought's star-dust into worlds of light and splendour.
He works more transformations than the gods
Of Greece were feigned in fable to accomplish:
From common things he lifts the veil which hides
Their inner mystery from the eyes of men,
And everywhere reveals the infinite.
'Tis he alone through whom the immanent spirit
That all creation vivifies and sustains
Proclaims its oracles of deepest wisdom.

⁠1901

CONTENTS

		PAGE
*The Pageant of the Hours		1
*"Beauty and the Beast"		4
*The Spiritual Life		7
A Poet's Grievance		11
*The Dream of Life		15
Unspoken Passion		21
Lost Identity		23
A Bookworm's Confession		27
*Hymn of the Pantheist		30
*The Dead Soul		31
Cradle Song		34
Omar-FitzGeraldics		35
Lines Written after Reading Pepys's Diary		37
A Song of Yearning		40
*Afterwards		42
*A Prayer for Light		44
*To a Friend		46
*The Pilgrim's Halt		48
*Rest		50
*On Receiving a Present of Roses		51
*The Poet's Heart		52
*The Lost Son		54
*Simplicity		56
On the Death of a Child		57
The Balladist Parson		59
To J. W. E.		61
Threnody		62
A Jealous Lover		63
Haikais		65
Dirge		68
Farewell		70
Miriam's Lovers		72
Lady Clara Vere de Vere's Reply		74
Despondency		76
The Wine of Life		78
The Infant's Grave		81
A Rhymer's Complaint		83
The Rhymer's Petition		87
Bernard Shaw		89
A Reply		91
Jones's Progress		93
Fragments		94
The Fall of the Leaves		95
The Return of the Golden Age		97
Autumn Song		98
*Epigrams		99
*Epigrams from the French		101

SONNETS

The Artist		107
*Inspiration		108
The Poet's Apology		108
Depression		109
Exaltation		109
*Twilight Life		110
Resignation		110
Afterwards		111
Life-Weariness		111
Sleep and Death		112
The Great Northern Express		112
The Cry of Humanity		113
The Waste of Life		113
Desire and Possession		114
Man and Nature		114
Man's Greatness and Littleness		115
Passion versus Reason		115
Knowledge not Wisdom		116
Truth's Guiding Star		116
Consolation?		117
To a Devotee		117
Man's Natural Rulers		118
Perversity		118
*A Poet's Optimism		119
*The Power of Will		119
Christmas Day, 1897		120
Theme for a Drama		120
Another		121
Love's Compensations		121
*Suggested by Shakespeare's Seventy-first Sonnet		122
Shelley		122
James Thomson ("B.V.")		123
Written after Reading a Memoir of Clough		123
*Matthew Arnold		124
The Poet of the Future		124
Music and Poetry		125
Mozart and Wagner		125
Gounod's "Faust"		126
Bach's Second Concerto		127
After a Concert		127
*Madame Calvé		128
*South Africa, 1899		128
The Relief of Ladysmith		129
Homage to a Foe		129
December 30, 1900		130
*The Paradox-Monger		130
*The Demagogue		131
*To the Critic		131

[Note.—Early in 1901 I printed, for private circulation, an edition of seventy-five copies only of a volume of poems with the same title as that of the present book. Many of the poems which were printed in that volume are included in this; but a few which appeared there have not been reprinted. On the other hand, the present volume contains a good many pieces which were not included in the issue of 1901. These new poems are distinguished in the above list by having a * prefixed to them.]

Printed by
Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
London & Edinburgh