The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Complete. Oliver Wendell Holmes

The stone yet warm from his uplifted hands;

       And say, O Science, shall thy life-blood freeze,

       When fluttering folly flaps on walls like these?

      A PORTRAIT

      Thoughtful in youth, but not austere in age;

       Calm, but not cold, and cheerful though a sage;

       Too true to flatter and too kind to sneer,

       And only just when seemingly severe;

       So gently blending courtesy and art

       That wisdom's lips seemed borrowing friendship's heart.

      Taught by the sorrows that his age had known

       In others' trials to forget his own,

       As hour by hour his lengthened day declined,

       A sweeter radiance lingered o'er his mind.

       Cold were the lips that spoke his early praise,

       And hushed the voices of his morning days,

       Yet the same accents dwelt on every tongue,

       And love renewing kept him ever young.

      A SENTIMENT

       O Bios Bpaxus—life is but a song; H rexvn uakpn—art is wondrous long; Yet to the wise her paths are ever fair, And Patience smiles, though Genius may despair. Give us but knowledge, though by slow degrees, And blend our toil with moments bright as these; Let Friendship's accents cheer our doubtful way, And Love's pure planet lend its guiding ray— Our tardy Art shall wear an angel's wings, And life shall lengthen with the joy it brings!

A POEM

       Table of Contents

      FOR THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION AT NEW YORK, MAY 5, 1853

      I HOLD a letter in my hand—

       A flattering letter, more's the pity—

       By some contriving junto planned,

       And signed per order of Committee. It touches every tenderest spot— My patriotic predilections, My well-known-something—don't ask what— My poor old songs, my kind affections.

      They make a feast on Thursday next,

       And hope to make the feasters merry;

       They own they're something more perplexed

       For poets than for port and sherry.

       They want the men of—(word torn out);

       Our friends will come with anxious faces,

       (To see our blankets off, no doubt,

       And trot us out and show our paces.)

      They hint that papers by the score

       Are rather musty kind of rations—

       They don't exactly mean a bore,

       But only trying to the patience;

       That such as—you know who I mean—

       Distinguished for their—what d' ye call 'em—

       Should bring the dews of Hippocrene

       To sprinkle on the faces solemn.

      —The same old story: that's the chaff

       To catch the birds that sing the ditties;

       Upon my soul, it makes me laugh

       To read these letters from Committees!

       They're all so loving and so fair—

       All for your sake such kind compunction;

       'T would save your carriage half its wear

       To touch its wheels with such an unction!

      Why, who am I, to lift me here

       And beg such learned folk to listen,

       To ask a smile, or coax a tear

       Beneath these stoic lids to glisten?

       As well might some arterial thread

       Ask the whole frame to feel it gushing,

       While throbbing fierce from heel to head

       The vast aortic tide was rushing.

      As well some hair-like nerve might strain

       To set its special streamlet going,

       While through the myriad-channelled brain

       The burning flood of thought was flowing;

       Or trembling fibre strive to keep

       The springing haunches gathered shorter,

       While the scourged racer, leap on leap,

       Was stretching through the last hot quarter!

      Ah me! you take the bud that came

       Self-sown in your poor garden's borders,

       And hand it to the stately dame

       That florists breed for, all she orders.

       She thanks you—it was kindly meant—

       (A pale afair, not worth the keeping,)—

       Good morning; and your bud is sent

       To join the tea-leaves used for sweeping.

      Not always so, kind hearts and true—

       For such I know are round me beating;

       Is not the bud I offer you,

       Fresh gathered for the hour of meeting,

       Pale though its outer leaves may be,

       Rose-red in all its inner petals?—

       Where the warm life we cannot see—

       The life of love that gave it—settles.

      We meet from regions far away,

       Like rills from distant mountains streaming;

       The sun is on Francisco's bay,

       O'er Chesapeake the lighthouse gleaming;

       While summer girds the still bayou

       In chains of bloom, her bridal token,

       Monadnock sees the sky grow blue,

       His crystal bracelet yet unbroken.

      Yet Nature bears the selfsame heart

       Beneath her russet-mantled bosom

       As where, with burning lips apart,

       She breathes and white magnolias blossom;

       The selfsame founts her chalice fill

       With showery sunlight running over,

       On fiery plain and frozen hill,

       On myrtle-beds and fields of clover.

      I give you Home! its crossing lines

       United in one golden suture,

       And showing every day that shines

       The present growing to the future—

       A flag that bears a hundred stars

       In one bright ring, with love for centre,

       Fenced round with white and crimson bars

       No prowling treason dares to enter!

      O brothers, home may be a word

       To make affection's living treasure,

       The wave an angel might have stirred,

       A stagnant pool of selfish pleasure;