Sunday 2 September 2012

September's Famous Devonian


Henry Austin Dobson is September’s famous Devonian. Dobson was born in Plymouth on the 18th January 1840 and was a poet and essayist.

Dobson was the son of an engineer. In December 1856 Dobson entered the Board of Trade and rose to the rank of principal in the harbour department.[1] He retired from this position in the autumn of 1901.

Dobson is particularly remembered for his use of French verse forms, such as the chant royal, the virelai nouveau, the triolet and the rondel.[2] Whilst his official carer was uneventful, he became a distinguished poet and biographer, those who study his work are often struck by his maturity.[3]

An example of a Dobson triolet is A kiss-
               Rose kissed me today.
               Will she kiss me tomorrow?
   Let it be as it may,
               Rose kissed me today.
               But the pleasure gives way
               To a savour of sorrow;-
               Rose kissed me today,
               Will she kiss me tomorrow?

From 1885 Dobson focused mainly on critical and biographical prose. He wrote biographies on Henry Fielding, Thomas Bewick, Oliver Goldsmith, Horace Walpole and William Hogarth. These studies are ‘marked alike by assiduous research, sympathetic presentation and sound criticisim’.[4]

Dobson passed away on the 2nd September 1921. He is buried in grave number 7800 in the Westminster Cemetery, Uxbridge Road, Middlesex.[5]


[1]- Poet’s Graves, ‘Henry Austin Dobson’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.poetsgraves.co.uk/dobson.htm. (Accessed 21/08/2012).
[2]- Poet’s Graves, ‘Henry Austin Dobson’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.poetsgraves.co.uk/dobson.htm. (Accessed 21/08/2012).
[3]- Poem Hunter, ‘The Biography of Henry Austin Dobson’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.poemhunter.com/henry-austin-dobson/biography/. (Accessed 21/08/2012).
[4]- Poem Hunter, ‘The Biography of Henry Austin Dobson’, 2012. [Online] Available from: www.poemhunter.com/henry-austin-dobson/biography/. (Accessed 21/08/2012).
[5]- Poet’s Graves, ‘Henry Austin Dobson’, 2011. [Online] Available from: www.poetsgraves.co.uk/dobson.htm. (Accessed 21/08/2012).