SOURCE: "The Poems of Austin Dobson," in The Bookman (London), April, 1924, pp. 13-8.

In the following essay, Noyes contends that Dobson's technical merit as a poet is overrated, but his ability to evoke strong emotions is admirable and often overlooked.

It was customary, at one time, to speak of the poems of Austin Dobson as if, within a strictly limited range, they were chiefly notable for their technical perfection. They were sometimes thought to be a little "precious," or even exotic—dainties for the literary epicure, exquisitely painted butterflies, emerging from cocoons of golden silk spun by Théodore de Banville, rather than creatures of a warm and breathing humanity. It was one of those generalisations which, because they are in superficial accord with certain obvious facts, obscure many of the more important characteristics of the work. Like so many of the easy judgments of the present day...