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His Christian name; I think; was John; …

His surname; Leisure。



Reynolds has painted him; … a face

Filled with a fine; old…fashioned grace;

Fresh…colored; frank; with ne'er a trace

Of trouble shaded;

The eyes are blue; the hair is dressed

In plainest way; … one hand is pressed

Deep in a flapped canary vest;

With buds brocaded。



He wears a brown old Brunswick coat;

With silver buttons; … round his throat;

A soft cravat; … in all you note

An elder fashion; …

A strangeness; which; to us who shine

In shapely hats; … whose coats combine

All harmonies of hue and line;

Inspires compassion。



He lived so long ago; you see!

Men were untravelled then; but we;

Like Ariel; post o'er land and sea

With careless parting;

He found it quite enough for him

To smoke his pipe in 〃garden trim;〃

And watch; about the fish tank's brim;

The swallows darting。



He liked the well…wheel's creaking tongue; …

He liked the thrush that fed her young; …

He liked the drone of flies among

His netted peaches;

He liked to watch the sunlight fall

Athwart his ivied orchard wall;

Or pause to catch the cuckoo's call

Beyond the beeches。



His were the times of Paint and Patch;

And yet no Ranelagh could match

The sober doves that round his thatch

Spread tails and sidled;

He liked their ruffling; puffed content;

For him their drowsy wheelings meant

More than a Mall of Beaux that bent;

Or Belles that bridled。



Not that; in truth; when life began

He shunned the flutter of the fan;

He too had maybe 〃pinked his man〃

In Beauty's quarrel;

But now his 〃fervent youth〃 had flown

Where lost things go; and he was grown

As staid and slow…paced as his own

Old hunter; Sorrel。



Yet still he loved the chase; and held

That no composer's score excelled

The merry horn; when Sweetlip swelled

Its jovial riot;

But most his measured words of praise

Caressed the angler's easy ways; …

His idly meditative days; …

His rustic diet。



Not that his 〃meditating〃 rose

Beyond a sunny summer doze;

He never troubled his repose

With fruitless prying;

But held; as law for high and low;

What God withholds no man can know;

And smiled away enquiry so;

Without replying。



We read … alas; how much we read! …

The jumbled strifes of creed and creed

With endless controversies feed

Our groaning tables;

His books … and they sufficed him … were

Cotton's Montaigne; The Grave of Blair;

A 〃Walton〃 … much the worse for wear;

And Aesop's Fables。



One more … The Bible。  Not that he

Had searched its page as deep as we;

No sophistries could make him see

Its slender credit;

It may be that he could not count

The sires and sons to Jesse's fount; …

He liked the 〃Sermon on the Mount;〃 …

And more; he read it。



Once he had loved; but failed to wed;

A red…cheeked lass who long was dead;

His ways were far too slow; he said;

To quite forget her;

And still when time had turned him gray;

The earliest hawthorn buds in May

Would find his lingering feet astray;

Where first he met her。



〃In Coelo Quies〃 heads the stone

On Leisure's grave; … now little known;

A tangle of wild…rose has grown

So thick across it;

The 〃Benefactions〃 still declare

He left the clerk an elbow…chair;

And 〃12 Pence Yearly to Prepare

A Christmas Posset。〃



Lie softly; Leisure!  Doubtless you;

With too serene a conscience drew

Your easy breath; and slumbered through

The gravest issue;

But we; to whom our age allows

Scarce space to wipe our weary brows;

Look down upon your narrow house;

Old friend; and miss you!



Austin Dobson '1840…1921'





ON A FAN

That Belonged To The Marquise De Pompadour



Chicken…skin; delicate; white;

Painted by Carlo Vanloo;

Loves in a riot of light;

Roses and vaporous blue;

Hark to the dainty frou…frou!

Picture above; if you can;

Eyes that could melt as the dew; …

This was the Pompadour's fan!



See how they rise at the sight;

Thronging the Ceil de Boeuf through;

Courtiers as butterflies bright;

Beauties that Fragonard drew;

Talon…rouge; falbala; queue;

Cardinal; Duke; … to a man;

Eager to sigh or to sue; …

This was the Pompadour's fan!



Ah; but things more than polite

Hung on this toy; voyez…vous! 

Matters of state and of might;

Things that great ministers do;

Things that; maybe; overthrew

Those in whose brains they began;

Here was the sign and the cue; …

This was the Pompadour's fan!



ENVOY

Where are the secrets it knew?

Weavings of plot and of plan?

… But where is the Pompadour; too?

This was the Pompadour's Fan!



Austin Dobson '1840…1921'





〃WHEN I SAW YOU LAST; ROSE〃



When I saw you last; Rose;

You were only so high; …

How fast the time goes!



Like a bud ere it blows;

You just peeped at the sky;

When I saw you last; Rose!



Now your petals unclose;

Now your May…time is nigh; …

How fast the time goes!



And a life; … how it grows!

You were scarcely so shy;

When I saw you last; Rose!



In your bosom it shows

There's a guest on the sly;

(How fast the time goes!)



Is it Cupid?  Who knows!

Yet you used not to sigh;

When I saw you last; Rose; …

How fast the time goes!



Austin Dobson '1840…1921'





URCEUS EXIT



I intended an Ode;

And it turned to a Sonnet。

It began a la mode;

I intended an Ode;

But Rose crossed the road

In her latest new bonnet;

I intended an Ode;

And it turned to a Sonnet。



Austin Dobson '1840…1921'





A CORSAGE BOUQUET



Myrtilla; to…night;

Wears Jacqueminot roses。

She's the loveliest sight!

Myrtilla to…night: …

Correspondingly light

My pocket…book closes。

Myrtilla; to…night

Wears Jacqueminot roses。



Charles Henry Luders '1858…1891'





TWO TRIOLETS



What he said: …

This kiss upon your fan I press … 

Ah! Sainte Nitouche; you don't refuse it!

And may it from its soft recess …

This kiss upon your fan I press …

Be blown to you; a shy caress;

By this white down; whene'er you use it。

This kiss upon your fan I press; …

Ah; Sainte Nitouche; you don't refuse it!



What she thought: …

To kiss a fan!

What a poky poet!

The stupid man

To kiss a fan

When he knows … that … he … can …

Or ought to know it …

To kiss a fan!

What a poky poet!



Harrison Robertson '1856…





THE BALLAD OF DEAD LADIES

From The French Of Francois Villon 1450



Tell me now in what hidden way is

Lady Flora the lovely Roman?

Where's Hipparchia; and where is Thais;

Neither of them the fairer woman?

Where is Echo; beheld of no man;

Only heard on river and mere; …

She whose beauty was more than human? 。 。 。

But where are the snows of yester…year?



Where's Heloise; the learned nun;

For whose sake Abeilard; I ween;

Lost manhood and put priesthood on?

(From Love he won such dule and teen!)

And where; I pray you; is the Queen

Who willed that Buridan should steer

Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine? 。 。 。

But where are the snows of yester…year?



White Queen Blanche; like a queen of lilies;

With a voice like any mermaiden; …

Bertha Broadfoot; Beatrice; Alice;

And Ermengarde the lady of Maine; …

And that good Joan whom Englishmen

At Rouen doomed and burned her there; …

Mother of God; where are they then? 。 。 。

But where are the snows of yester…year?



Nay; never ask this week; fair lord;

Where they are gone; nor yet this year;

Except with this for an overword; …

But where are the snows of yester…year?



Dante Gabriel Rossetti '1828…1882'





BALLADE OF DEAD LADIES

After Villon



Nay; tell me now in what strange air

The Roman Flora dwells to…day;

Where Archippiada hides; and where

Beautiful Thais has passed away?

Whence answers Echo; afield; astray;

By mere or stream; … around; below?

Lovelier she than a woman of clay;

Nay; but where is the last year's snow?



Where is wise Heloise; that care

Brought on Abeilard; and dismay?

All for her love he found a snare;

A maimed poor monk in orders gray;

And where's the Queen who willed to slay

Buridan; that in a sack must go

Afloat down Seine; … a perilous way …

Nay; but where is the last year's snow?



Where's that White Queen; a lily rare;

With her sweet song; the Siren's lay?

Where's Bertha Broad…foot; Beatrice fair?

Alys and Ermengarde; where are they?

Good Joan; whom English did betray

In Rouen town; and burned her?  No;

Maiden and Queen; no man may say;

Nay; but where is the last year's snow?



ENVOY

Prince; all this week thou needst not pray;

Nor yet this year the thing to know。

One burden answers; ever and aye;

〃Nay; but where is the last year's snow?〃



Andrew Lang '1844…1912'





A BALLAD OF DEAD LADIES

After Villon

From 〃If I Were King〃



I wonder in what Isle of Bliss

Apollo's music fills the air;

In what green valley Artemis

For young Endymion spreads the snare:

Where Venus lingers debonair:

The Wind has blown them all away …

And Pan lies piping in his lair …

Where are the Gods of Yesterday?



Say where the great Semiramis

Sleeps in a rose…red tomb; and where

The precious dust of Caesar is;

Or Cleopatra's yellow hair:

Where Alexander Do…and…Dare;

The Wind has blown them all away …

And Redbeard of the Iron Chair;

Where are the Dreams of Yesterday?



Where is the Queen of Herod's kiss;

And Phryne in her beauty bare;

By what strange sea does Tomyris

With Dido and Cassandra share

Divine Proserpina's despair;

The Wind has blown them all away …

For what poor ghost does Helen care?

Where are the Girls of Yesterday?



ENVOY

Alas for lovers!  Pair by pair

The Wind has blown them all away:

The young and yare; the fond and fair:

Where are the Snows of Yesterday?



Justin Huntly McCarthy '1860…1936'





IF I WERE KING

Af

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