To Richard Watson Gilder

OLD friends are best! And so to you

   Again I send, in closer throng,

   No unfamliar shapes of song,

But those that once you liked and knew.

You surely will not do them wrong;

   For are you not an old friend, too? --

      Old friends are best.

Old books, old wine, old Nankin blue; --

   All things, in short, to which belong

   The charm, the grace that Time makes strong, --

All these I prize, but (entre nous)

      Old friends are best.

Austin Dobson

Index to poems in the collection by Austin Dobson