DOBELL, SYDNEY THOMPSON

born April 5, 1824, Cranbrook, Kent, Eng. died Aug. 22, 1874, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire pseudonym Sydney Yendys English writer of erratic poetry characterized by formlessness, chaotic imagery, and exaggerations of passionone of a group of poets of what the writer Charles Kingsley called the Spasmodic school. Dobell's long dramatic poem The Roman (1850) was hailed by the critics and secured for its author the acquaintance of many notable figures in liberal politics and in literature. The Roman celebrated the revolutionary year of 1848. Another long poem, Balder (intended as part of a trilogy), was not appreciated and was burlesqued in Firmiliam: . . . a Spasmodic Tragedy (1854) by William Edmondstoune Aytoun. The vague aesthetic of the Spasmodic school was expressed by Dobell in a number of essays collected in 1876 as Thoughts on Art, Philosophy and Religion. Dobell also wrote lyrics and, with Alexander Smith, a sonnet sequence on the Crimean War.