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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE TOYMAN, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: With verse, is form the first, or sense? Last Line: And wins the trick with both combined.' Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin | |||
WITH Verse, is Form the first, or Sense? Hereon men waste their Eloquence. 'Sense (cry the one Side), Sense, of course. How can you lend your Theme its Force? How can you be direct and clear, Concise, and (best of all) sincere, If you must pen your Strain sublime In Bonds of Measure and of Rhyme? Who ever heard true Grief relate Its artless Woes in 'six' and 'eight'? Or felt his manly Bosom swell Beneath a French-made Villanelle? How can your Mens divinior sing Within the Sonnet's scanty Ring, Where she must chant her Orphic Tale In just so many Lines, or fail?...' 'Form is the first (the Others bawl); If not, why write in Verse at all? Why not your throbbing Thoughts expose (If Verse be such Restraint) in Prose? For surely if you speak your Soul Most freely where there's least Control, It follows you must speak it best By Rhyme (or Reason) unreprest. Blest Hour! be not delayed too long, When Britain frees her Slaves of Song; And barred no more by Lack of Skill, The Mob may crowd Parnassus Hill!...' Just at this Point -- for you must know, All this was but the To-and-fro Of MATT and DICK, who played with Thought, And lingered longer than they ought (So pleasant 'tis to tap one's Box And trifle round a Paradox!) -- There came -- but I forgot to say, 'Twas in the Mall, the Month was May -- There came a Fellow where they sat, His Elf-locks peeping through his Hat, Who bore a Basket. Straight his Load He set upon the Ground, and showed His newest Toy -- a Card with Strings. On this side was a Bird with Wings, On that, a Cage. You twirled, and lo! The twain were one. Said MATT, 'E'en so Here's the Solution in a Word: -- Form is the Cage and Sense the Bird. The Poet twirls them in his Mind, And wins the Trick with both combined.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A GAGE D'AMOUR by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON A GARDEN SONG by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON ARS VICTRIX (IMITATED FROM THEOPHILE GAUTIER) by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON BEFORE SEDAN by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON DORA VERSUS ROSE by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON GROWING GRAY by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW; IN MEMORIAM by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON IN AFTER DAYS; RONDEAU by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON THE BALLAD OF PROSE AND RHYME by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON WHEN THERE IS PEACE by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON |
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