To Austin Dobson

By Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909)

(Born Jan. 18, 1840)

LAUREATE of the Gentle Heart!

Only art like your art,

Limpid, gracious, happy-phrased,

Could praise you as you should be praised,

Many a lyric you have writ,

Grave with pathos, gay with wit,

Or conceived in larger mood,

Shall outlast the clattering brood

That usurp our noisy day;

Shall, that all that’s noble, stay

In our well-loved English tongue

Till the ending song is sung;

For no purer tone was heard

Since men sought Beauty and the Word.