SOURCE: "Austin Dobson," in Silhouettes, William Heinemann Ltd., 1925, pp. 183-90.

In the following essay, Gosse argues that Dobson's great popularity as a poet has led to less serious critical attention to his work.

In his sound and catholic Popular History of English Poetry, recently published through Messrs. A. M. Philpot, Mr. Earle Welby says that "Dobson, despite his popularity, is undervalued." I believe this to be as true as it is paradoxical, and I would go so far as to modify the phrase by saying "because of his popularity." Since the original publication of Dobson's early poetry exactly half a century ago, the circulation of his verse has been wider than that of any other English verse-writer of his immediate generation, and since his death, on September 2, 1921, the reissue of his writings has continued. Notwithstanding that, or as I obstinately repeat because of that, his genius as a...