मैं धरती का फटना देख रहा हूँ / Main Dharati Ka Phatna Dekh Raha Hoon
July 5, 2023More Poets Yet!
July 5, 2023On A Nankin Plate
“Ah, me, but it might have been!
Was there ever so dismal a fate?” —
Quoth the little blue mandarin.
“Such a maid as was never seen!
She passed, though I cried to her ‘Wait’ —
Ah me, but it might have been!
“I cried, ‘O my Flower, my Queen,
Be mine!’ ‘Twas precipitate” —
Quoth the little blue mandarin —
“But then . . . she was just sixteen,
Long-eyed — as a lily straight —
Ah me, but it might have been!
“As it was,from her palankeen,
She laughed — ‘You’re a week too late!’ “
(Quoth the little blue mandarin.)
“That is why, in a mist of spleen,
I mourn on this Nankin Plate.
Ah me, but it might of been!” —
Quoth the little blue mandarin.
Austin Dobson
Austin Dobson (1840-1921) was an English poet and biographer. He is known for his works such as "The Songs of a Savoyard" (1884), "Proverbs in Porcelain" (1887), "Eighteenth Century Vignettes" (1890), and "Echoes" (1894). He was also a prolific biographer, writing about the lives of figures such as Horace Walpole, William Hogarth, and Samuel Johnson. His works are known for their wit and humor, as well as their insight into the lives of the people he wrote about.