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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MY BOOKS, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: They dwell in the odour of camphor
Last Line: But those are the books I read.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Books; Reading
First Line: They dwell in the odour of camphor
Last Line: But those are the books I read.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Books; Reading
THEY dwell in the odour of camphor,
They stand in a Sheraton shrine,
They are 'warranted early editions,'
These worshipful tomes of mine; --
In their creamiest 'Oxford vellum,'
In their redolent 'crushed Levant,'
With their delicate watered linings,
They are jewels of price, I grant; --
Blind-tooled and morocco-jointed,
They have Zaehnsdorf's daintiest dress,
They are graceful, attenuate, polished,
But they gather the dust, no less; --
For the row that I prize is yonder,
Away on the unglazed shelves,
The bulged and the bruised octavos,
The dear and the dumpy twelves, --
Montaigne with his sheepskin blistered,
And Howell the worse for wear,
And the worm-drilled Jesuits' Horace,
And the little old cropped Moliere,
And the Burton I bought for a florin,
And the Rabelais foxed and flea'd, --
For the others I never have opened,
But those are the books I read.
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