Skip to content
Linespedia

The Gray Chief

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

Topics: classic

For The Meeting Of The Massachusetts Medical Society, 1859     'T is sweet to fight our battles o'er,     And crown with honest praise     The gray old chief, who strikes no more     The blow of better days.     Before the true and trusted sage     With willing hearts we bend,     When years have touched with hallowing age     Our Master, Guide, and Friend.     For all his manhood's labor past,     For love and faith long tried,     His age is honored to the last,     Though strength and will have died.     But when, untamed by toil and strife,     Full in our front he stands,     The torch of light, the shield of life,     Still lifted in his hands,     No temple, though its walls resound     With bursts of ringing cheers,     Can hold the honors that surround     His manhood's twice-told years!

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"For The Meeting Of The Massachusetts Medical Society, 1859..."

"The Gray Chief" is a quintessential example of Oliver Wendell Holmes's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes

"For The Meeting Of The Massachusetts Medical Socie..." by Oliver Wendell Holmes

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"The house was crammed from roof to floor,     Heads piled on heads at every door;     Half dead with August's seething heat     I crowded on an"

"Yon whey-faced brother, who delights to wear     A weedy flux of ill-conditioned hair,     Seems of the sort that in a crowded place     One el"

""How many have gone?" was the question of old     Ere Time our bright ring of its jewels bereft;     Alas! for too often the death-bell has toll"

"We count the broken lyres that rest     Where the sweet wailing singers slumber,     But o'er their silent sister's breast     The wild-flowers"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Oliver Wendell Holmes

About Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) was an American poet, physician, and essayist. His poems "Old Ironsides" and "The Chambered Nautilus" are American classics. He was part of the Fireside Poets group.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"The house was crammed from roof to floor,     Head..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.