- Dobell, Sydney Thompson
- (1824-1874)Born at Cranbrook, Kent, he was one of the socalled Spasmodic school of poets. His father was a wine merchant, his mother the daughter of the political reformer Samuel Thompson. The family moved to Cheltenham when Dobell was twelve years old. He was educated privately and never attended either school or university. His political views, particularly reform, are expressed in many of his poems and he had an interest in the cause of oppressed nationalities. Although not a rich man, he was always ready to help needy men of letters, and it was through his exertions that David Gray's poems were published. From about 1857 his health began to fail; he spent most winters abroad and wrote very little. He was buried at Painswick, Gloucester. Some of his publications: The Roman, 1850 (a long dramatic poem, which appeared under the pseudonym of Sydney Yendys, a palindrome). Balder, 1854. A Series of Sonnets on the Crimean War, 1855 (with Alexander Smith, see entry). England in Time of War, 1856. Some of his other poems: "A Shower in War Time," "America, II," "Grass from the Battle-field," "Sonnet: The Army Surgeon."Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Patriotic Poems America Loves. Jean Anne Vincent, ed. Doubleday, 1968. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. Oxford University Press, 1971. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).
British and Irish poets. A biographical dictionary. William Stewart. 2015.