Here dwell together still two men of note
 Who never lived and so can never die:
 How very near they seem, yet how remote
 That age before the world went all awry.
 But still the game's afoot for those with ears
 Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:
 England is England yet, for all our fears--
 Only those things the heart believes are true.

 A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane
 As night descends upon this fabled street:
 A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,
 The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.
 Here, though the world explode, these two survive,
 And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

Ah, Sherlock Holmes poetry. Perhaps the meter is off, but the imagery in it makes it worthwhile. That and the fact that it makes things nice for the closet romantic. All warm-fuzzy and all that.

Rather, it’s not warm-fuzzy, but instead gives a feeling of security in this rapidly changing world of ours. “…though the world explode, these two [Holmes and Watson] survive”, forsooth. Being stuck in a certain era isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

[Short Biography]

Vincent Starrett was the author of the renowned pastiche the Adventure of the Unique Hamlet, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and other writings. The pastiche [high-class fan fiction] is widely considered one of the finest ever written and is listed in The Diogenes Club Required Readings. Mr Starrett was a prolific Sherlockian author and critic, friend of many highly acclaimed authors and writers, including such luminaries as August Derleth (of the Solar Pons series fame) and H. P. Lovecraft, and a much admired journalist with American Newspapers.

– http://www.marietta.edu/~cislerd/diogenese/starrett.htm:

Extensive biography and bibliography:
http://www.caxtonclub.org/reading/May2001/starrett.htm

— Mel