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Home  »  Every Day in the Year A Poetical Epitome of the World’s History  »  To the Memory of Sydney Dobell

James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

August 22

To the Memory of Sydney Dobell

By John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895)

  • An English poet who died on August 22, 1874.


  • AND thou, too, gone! one more bright soul away

    To swell the mighty sleepers ’neath the sod;

    One less to honor and to love, and say,

    Who lives with thee doth live half-way to God!

    My chaste-souled Sydney! thou wast carved too fine

    For coarse observance of the general eye;

    But who might look into thy soul’s fair shrine

    Saw bright gods there, and felt their presence nigh.

    Oh! if we owe warm thanks to Heaven, ’tis when

    In the slow progress of the struggling years

    Our touch is blessed to feel the pulse of men

    Who walk in light and love above their peers

    White-robed, and forward point with guiding hand,

    Breathing a heaven around them where they stand!