A Pleasant Invective Against Printing

Henry Austin Dobson 1840 (Plymouth) – 1921



"Flee fro the PREES, and dwelle with sothfastnesse."--CHAUCER, Balade de Bon Conseil.
  
  
The Press is too much with us, small and great:
We are undone of chatter and on dit,
Report, retort, rejoinder, repartee,
Mole-hill and mare's nest, fiction up-to-date,
Babble of booklets, bicker of debate,
Aspect of A., and attitude of B.--
A waste of words that drive us like a sea,
Mere derelict of Ourselves, and helpless freight!
  
"O for a lodge in some vast wilderness!"
Some region unapproachable of Print,
Where never cablegram could gain access,
And telephones were not, nor any hint
Of tidings new or old, but Man might pipe
His soul to Nature,--careless of the Type!
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
1

Quick analysis:

Scheme X AABAABBA XCXCDD
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 657
Words 119
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 6

Henry Austin Dobson

Henry Austin Dobson was an English poet and essayist His official career was uneventful but as a poet and biographer he was distinguished Those who study his work are usually struck by its maturity more…

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