| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Microcosm | | By Bertram Dobell (1842–1914) |
| | | HIS home a speck in a vast Universe, | |
| He a mere atom on that tiny speck, | |
| Victim of countless evils that coerce | |
| And force him onward on a pathless track: | |
| And yet a being made to dominate | 5 |
| O’er all things else by mind’s controlling power: | |
| Spoilt favourite at once and sport of fate, | |
| Football of fortune, time’s consummate flower! | |
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| To him alone did Nature’s self impart | |
| A spark of her divinest energy, | 10 |
| With power to create a world of Art, | |
| And intellect to solve all mystery: | |
| So great and yet so little! blest and curst— | |
| Nature’s most noble offspring—yet her worst! | | | | |
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