To the Memory of Sydney Dobell - John Stuart Blackie

And thou, too, gone! one more bright soul away

  To swell the mighty sleepers ’neath the sod;

One less to honour 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!

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John Stuart Blackie (1809 – 1895) Scotland

Source: Every Day in the Year: A Poetical Epitome of the World’s History, ed. by James L. Ford and Mary K. Ford. Dodd, Mead & Co., 1902

Sydney Thompson Dobell was an English poet who died on August 22, 1874 aged 50. He wrote about political issues of his day including the Crimean war, and was a keen supporter of his fellow poets and writers.