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).
