Rosemary and Pansies

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ROSEMARY
AND PANSIES

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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 threadOf a soul resolved where conscience loads to tread.

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ROSEMARY
AND PANSIES

BY

BERTRAM DOBELL.

"There's rosemary for you, that's forremembrance: 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

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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.

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All Nature's mirrored in the poet's eye,Wherein the pageant of the UniverseReflects itself in all its wondrous beauty,That he may set forth its sublimity,The unity beneath its transmutations,And shew his less imaginative fellowsSomething of that great vision he beholds.He gazes steadily at all things human,Ever intent to find the harmonyWhich underlies life's many seeming discords.He is an alchemist whose art indeedTransmutes base metal into shining gold,And in his brain's laboratory turnsThought'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

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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.]

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Printed by
Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
London & Edinburgh

This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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