Michael Ramel The Primordial Poet Poet Ode

Notes About The Poem

Digby Augustus Stewart Mackworth Dolben (8 February 1848 – 28 June 1867) was an English poet who died young from drowning (age 19). He owes his poetic reputation to his cousin, Robert Bridges, poet laureate from 1913 to 1930, who edited a partial edition of his verse, “Poems”, in 1911.

Ode to Digby Dolben

O' brief bright voice of Victorian days
Raised amid Guernsey’s winds, on Finedon’s green
At Eton you walked the unstraight ways
Found God's judgment at the age of Nineteen

(Like Burns, Byron and Shelley (before you)
The inspiration that burns like lust
Into the beast's belly (which implored you)
The rage's torrent perverting the trust)

Bridges preserved the music of your art
(You’ve crossed the bridge to another plane)
Though Welland’s waters stilled your youthful heart
Your verse outlived the fame of your name

Romantic visions, sacred longing, spring
Through lines where love and shadows vine
Nineteen short years, yet still your poems sing
In our minds even though they’re frozen in time

O' Dolben, lost before your dawn was through
Your poetic legacy still flowers anew

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