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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO HUGH THOMSON, WITH COPY OF SIR JOHN GILBERT'S SHAKESPEARE by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: IN FIFTY-SIX, WHEN GILBERT DREW
Last Line: IN FIFTY-SIX?
Subject(s): GILBERT, SIR JOHN (1817-1897);

IN Fifty-six, when GILBERT drew
These brave conceptions, people knew
Little that we to-day repeat
(Quoting the prophet in the street)
Of Value, Tone, and Point of View!

Their tastes were plain; their wants were few;
They liked red suns and skies of blue...
They were so frankly incomplete
In Fifty-six!

And yet they prized their GILBERT too --
His Knights and Dames, his ruffling crew,
Where banners fly, and drums are beat,
And cloth-of-gold and drugget meet...
I was a lad then! Where were you
In Fifty-six?



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