Oliver Wendell Holmes

"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"

"The friends that are, and friends that were,     What shallow waves divide!     I miss the form for many a year     Still seated at my side."

"Prelude To "Illustrated Poems"     Full well I know the frozen hand has come     That smites the songs of grove and garden dumb,     And chills sa"

"January 25, 1859     His birthday. - Nay, we need not speak     The name each heart is beating, -     Each glistening eye and flushing cheek"

"The minstrel of the classic lay     Of love and wine who sings     Still found the fingers run astray     That touched the rebel strings."

"He was all sunshine; in his face     The very soul of sweetness shone;     Fairest and gentlest of his race;     None like him we can call our"

"Intra Muros     The sunbeams, lost for half a year,     Slant through my pane their morning rays;     For dry northwesters cold and clear,     Th"

"Read At The Two Hundredth Anniversary     Is it a weanling's weakness for the past     That in the stormy, rebel-breeding town,     Swept clean of"

"I Don't think I feel much older; I'm aware I'm rather gray,     But so are many young folks; I meet 'em every day.     I confess I 'm more parti"

"Say not the Poet dies!     Though in the dust he lies,     He cannot forfeit his melodious breath,     Unsphered by envious death!     Life dr"

"It may be, yes, it must be, Time that brings     An end to mortal things,     That sends the beggar Winter in the train     Of Autumn's burdene"

"Though watery deserts hold apart     The worlds of East and West,     Still beats the selfsame human heart     In each proud Nation's breast."

"In the little southern parlor of the house you may have seen     With the gambrel-roof, and the gable looking westward to the green,     At the"

"Strange! that one lightly whispered tone     Is far, far sweeter unto me,     Than all the sounds that kiss the earth,     Or breathe along the"

"Boston Common, December 6, 1882 During The Transit Of Venus     I Love all sights of earth and skies,     From flowers that glow to stars that shin"

"H. W. L.     Pride of the sister realm so long our own,     We claim with her that spotless fame of thine,     White as her snow and fragrant as h"

"She has gone, - she has left us in passion and pride, -     Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side!     She has torn her own star from o"

"Not charity we ask,     Nor yet thy gift refuse;     Please thy light fancy with the easy task     Only to look and choose.     The little-he"

"I must leave thee, lady sweet     Months shall waste before we meet;     Winds are fair and sails are spread,     Anchors leave their ocean bed"

"Wan-Visaged thing! thy virgin leaf     To me looks more than deadly pale,     Unknowing what may stain thee yet, -     A poem or a tale."

"Angel of Peace, thou hast wandered too long!     Spread thy white wings to the sunshine of love!     Come while our voices are blended in song,"

"While far along the eastern sky     I saw the flags of Havoc fly,     As if his forces would assault     The sovereign of the starry vault"

"The waves unbuild the wasting shore;     Where mountains towered the billows sweep,     Yet still their borrowed spoils restore,     And build"

"Whatever I do, and whatever I say,     Aunt Tabitha tells me that is n't the way;     When she was a girl (forty summers ago)     Aunt Tabitha"

"If every tongue that speaks her praise     For whom I shape my tinkling phrase     Were summoned to the table,     The vocal chorus that would"

"I     Enchanter of Erin, whose magic has bound us,     Thy wand for one moment we fondly would claim,     Entranced while it summons the phantoms a"

"O Lord of Hosts! Almighty King!     Behold the sacrifice we bring     To every arm thy strength impart,     Thy spirit shed through every heart"

"(Terpsichore) Read at the Annual Dinner of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 24, 1843.     In narrowest girdle, O reluctant Muse,"

"She twirled the string of golden beads,     That round her neck was hung, - -     My grandsire's gift; the good old man     Loved girls when he"

"1856     You 'll believe me, dear boys, 't is a pleasure to rise,     With a welcome like this in your darling old eyes;     To meet the same smil"

"I WROTE some lines once on a time In wondrous merry mood, And thought, as usual, men would say They were exceeding good. They were so queer, so very"

"SHE has gone,-- she has left us in passion and pride,-- Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side! She has torn her own star from our firmament's"

"GRANDMOTHER's mother: her age, I guess, Thirteen summers, or something less; Girlish bust, but womanly air; Smooth, square forehead with uprolled hair"

"Life is real, life is earnest, And the shell is not its pen – “Egg thou art, and egg remainest” Was not spoken of the hen. Art is long and Time is fl"

"OH for one hour of youthful joy! Give back my twentieth spring! I'd rather laugh, a bright-haired boy, Than reign, a gray-beard king. Off with the sp"

"For The Meeting Of The Massachusetts Medical Society, 1859     'T is sweet to fight our battles o'er,     And crown with honest praise     Th"

"WOODSTOCK, CONN., JULY 4, 1877     Not to myself this breath of vesper song,     Not to these patient friends, this kindly throng,     Not to this"

"There was a giant in time of old,     A mighty one was he;     He had a wife, but she was a scold,     So he kept her shut in his mammoth fold;"

"In the hour of twilight shadows     The Pilgrim sire looked out;     He thought of the "bloudy Salvages"     That lurked all round about,"

"Cabin Passenger.            Man at Wheel.     CABIN PASSENGER.     Friend, you seem thoughtful. I not wonder much     That he who sails the oc"

"The first messages received through the submarine cable were sent by an electrical expert, a mysterious personage who signed himself De Sauty.     P"

"There was a sound of hurrying feet,     A tramp on echoing stairs,     There was a rush along the aisles, -     It was the hour of prayers."

"From the first gleam of morning to the gray     Of peaceful evening, lo, a life unrolled!     In woven pictures all its changes told,     Its l"

"Lady, life's sweetest lesson wouldst thou learn,     Come thou with me to Love's enchanted bower     High overhead the trellised roses burn;"

"Proud of her clustering spires, her new-built towers,     Our Venice, stolen from the slumbering sea,     A sister's kindliest greeting wafts to"

"Sweet Mary, I have never breathed     The love it were in vain to name;     Though round my heart a serpent wreathed,     I smiled, or strove t"

"No fear lest praise should make us proud!     We know how cheaply that is won;     The idle homage of the crowd     Is proof of tasks as idly d"

"1852     Where, oh where are the visions of morning,     Fresh as the dews of our prime?     Gone, like tenants that quit without warning,     Do"

"You know "The Teacups," that congenial set     Which round the Teapot you have often met;     The grave DICTATOR, him you knew of old, -     K"

"Is thy name Mary, maiden fair?     Such should, methinks, its music be;     The sweetest name that mortals bear     Were best befitting thee;"

"Nay, blame me not; I might have spared     Your patience many a trivial verse,     Yet these my earlier welcome shared,     So, let the better"

"The feeble sea-birds, blinded in the storms,     On some tall lighthouse dash their little forms,     And the rude granite scatters for their pa"

""Bring me my broken harp," he said;     "We both are wrecks, - but as ye will, -     Though all its ringing tones have fled,     Their echoes"

"Here! sweep these foolish leaves away,     I will not crush my brains to-day!     Look! are the southern curtains drawn?     Fetch me a fan, an"

""Only a housemaid!" She looked from the kitchen, -     Neat was the kitchen and tidy was she;     There at her window a sempstress sat stitchin"

"1851     The summer dawn is breaking     On Auburn's tangled bowers,     The golden light is waking     On Harvard's ancient towers;     The sun"

"No life worth naming ever comes to good     If always nourished on the selfsame food;     The creeping mite may live so if he please,     And f"