Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems (312 Poems)
Poetry: A Metrical Essay, Read Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
To Charles Wentworth Upham, the Following Metrical Essay is Affectionately Inscribed. Scenes of my youth! awake its slumbering fire!Ye winds of Memory, sweep the silent lyre!Ray of the past, if yet thou canst appear,Break through the clouds of Fancy (Oliver … Continue reading
Poem For The Two Hundred And Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Founding Of Harvard College (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
TWICE had the mellowing sun of autumn crownedThe hundredth circle of his yearly round,When, as we meet to-day, our fathers met:That joyous gathering who can e’er forget,When Harvard’s nurslings, scattered far and wide,Through mart and village, lake’s and ocean’s side,Came, … Continue reading
Agnes (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
PART FIRST THE KNIGHTThe tale I tell is gospel true,As all the bookmen know,And pilgrims who have strayed to viewThe wrecks still left to show. The old, old story, (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Astraea: The Balance Of Illusions (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
WHAT secret charm, long whispering in mine ear,Allures, attracts, compels, and chains me here,Where murmuring echoes call me to resignTheir sacred haunts to sweeter lips than mine;Where silent pathways pierce the solemn shade,In whose still depths my feet have never … Continue reading
The School-Boy (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
THESE hallowed precincts, long to memory dear,Smile with fresh welcome as our feet draw near;With softer gales the opening leaves are fanned,With fairer hues the kindling flowers expand,The rose-bush reddens with the blush of June,The groves are vocal with their … Continue reading
The Banker’s Secret (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
THE Banker’s dinner is the stateliest feastThe town has heard of for a year, at least;The sparry lustres shed their broadest blaze,Damask and silver catch and spread the rays;The florist’s triumphs crown the daintier spoilWon from the sea, the forest, … Continue reading
An After-Dinner Poem (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
(TERPSICHORE) Read at the Annual Dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, atCambridge, August 24, 1843. IN narrowest girdle, O reluctant Muse,In closest frock and Cinderella shoes,Bound to the foot-lights for thy brief display,One zephyr step, and then dissolve away! … Continue reading
Poem At The Centennial Anniversary Dinner Of The Massachusetts Medical Society (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
JUNE 8, 1881 THREE paths there be where Learning’s favored sons,Trained in the schools which hold her favored ones,Follow their several stars with separate aim;Each has its honors, each its special claim.Bred in the fruitful cradle of the East,First, as … Continue reading
Grandmother’ (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
‘Tis like stirring living embers when, at eighty, one remembersAll the achings and the quakings of “the times that tried men’s souls”;When I talk of Whig and Tory, when I tell the Rebel story,To you the words are ashes, but … Continue reading
A Family Record (Oliver Wendell Holmes Poems)
WOODSTOCK, CONN., JULY 4, 1877 NOT to myself this breath of vesper song,Not to these patient friends, this kindly throng,Not to this hallowed morning, though it beOur summer Christmas, Freedom’s jubilee,When every summit, topmast, steeple, tower,That owns her empire spreads … Continue reading
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