Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Descriptive Poems: I. Personal: Great Writers

Longfellow

Austin Dobson (1840–1921)

“NOT to be tuneless in old age!”

Ah! surely blest his pilgrimage,

Who, in his winter’s snow,

Still sings with note as sweet and clear

As in the morning of the year

When the first violets blow!

Blest!—but more blest, whom summer’s heat,

Whom spring’s impulsive stir and beat,

Have taught no feverish lure;

Whose Muse, benignant and serene,

Still keeps his autumn chaplet green

Because his verse is pure!

Lie calm, O white and laureate head!

Lie calm, O Dead, that art not dead,

Since from the voiceless grave

Thy voice shall speak to old and young

While song yet speaks our English tongue

By Charles’ or Thamis’ wave.