The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-01-27

No more shall feel the ~yictor's tread.
Or know the conquered knee
The harpies Of the shore shall pluck
The eagle Of the sea!
Oh. better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave:
Her thunders shook the mighty deep.
And there should be her grave:
Nail to the mast her holy nag,
Set every threadbars sail.
And give her to the god Of storms.
The lightning and the galst
The lyric was first published In the Bos-
Lon Advertiser; 1t was copied all over the
country. and 1t saved the ship for half a
"Old Ironsides" was K to the
.harlestown navy yard and later was re-
paired. Even when the days Of wooden
was over. the Constitution did
not 60 out of commission until fifty years
after Holmes wrote his poem
Holmes received his degree Of doctor OF
medicine In 1856. The same year hi pub
Iished his first volume OF poems Brander
says that Doctor Holmes was
Ike Bryant (who composed 'Thanatopsis
and the Lines to a Waterfowl before he
vas 2O. In that he early attained his full
development as a poet. Although both of
hem wrote many verses in later life, moth
OF theirs excelled these poems of their
youth. 'Thanatopsis' on the one side and
the Last Leaf on the other are as strong
characteristic as anything either poet
was ever 10 write Throughout all his long
Here is Holiness The Last Lear:
saw him once before.
As he passed by the door.
And again
The pavement stones resound
As he totters TO the ground
With his cane
They say that In his prime.
Ere tee pruning knife of Time
Cut him down.
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town
But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets
Sad and wan:
And he shakes his feeble head.
That IL seems as II he said:
They are goner'
The messy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom.
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many . year
On the tcmb.
Ny xrandmamma has said
Poor old lady, she Is dead
Long ago
That he had q Roman nose.
And his cheek was IKE q rose
In the snow.
But now his noss IL thin.
And 1t rests upon his chin
Like q stan:
And q crook Is in his back.
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.
I know It Is q sin
For me TO SIT and grin
AT him here:
But the old three-cornered hat
And the breeches. and all that.
Are 50 queer!
And II I should live To be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring.
Let them smile. as I DO now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling
In 1s47 Doctor Holmes vent back to Har-
ard AZ professor OF anatomy and phys
,logy, a position which he held for thirty
We years. He lectmed occasionally. wrote
iedical articles. and much poetry In this
eriod. He was q Boston poet especially.
Whenever the city needed q poem for an
of public interest, q Inner, or q
ineral. or a visitor of distinction, Doctor
Iolmes was called upon for verses. He
lways responded c~heerfully. As he put 1t
! one OF his later poems:
m 9 florist In verse. and what would people
say
I came to . banquet without my s~euauetf
It was Doctor Holmes who said that
Boston statehouss in the hnb OF the solar
When he was g years old. an age when
lost men have stinened themselves into
abits. says Mr.. Matthews, Holmes showed
10 hextbffty Of his talent by writing one
{ the wisest and wittiest prose broke In
,e language. This was the "Autccrat Of
he Breakfast Table, which came out In
he Atlantic Monthly and in book form In
$. It is an original book, though in form
Is not unlike the Spectator Of Addison
Steele. This work has lone more than
the poems to max Holmes an eS-
hsure In American literature.
Afterward Doctor Holmes published the
at the Breakfast Table, ana
Ill later the Poet at the Breakfast
able" which were somewhat inferior to
IS first great success In 1904. when he
as 81 years Of age. his last volume Of
lose came out, 'Over the Teacupa" h
iree novels written by Doctor Holmes are
ore In the nature Of essays ana character
letches than novels proper. They are
elsie Venner." The Guardian Anger and
4 Moral Antipathy." Holmes also wrote
ographies OF John Lothrop Motley and
alph Waldo Emerson
One Of the bes, loved Of Holiness poems |
The Chambered Nautilus"
his 10 the ship Of pearl. which. poets se,m
sails the unshadowed main
The venturesome bark that dfnxp
J tne sweet summer wind it, purpled winep
suifs enchanted. where the siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare. /
here the cold sea-maids rss to rn that, |
streaming hair.
web Of living gsuxs no more unfuri.
Wrecked Is the ship Of peariI !
And every chambered cell /
here Its dim dreaming life vas won't to dv>u |
the fsii tenant shaped his growing shsn,
rised ceiling rent. In sunless oypt upsssled, |
ar after year beheId the silent ton
That spread bis lusfnous coli: /
stli- as the spiral grew. 4
; left the past years dwelling for the nev
ole with soft step its shining archvay throuxb |
suit " Its idle door. |
retched In his tAst-found homs. ana kn~v m.
old no more.
for the heavenly message brought hv |
thee. "
,hiid of the wandering sea.
asst from her lap foFiornf
ON my dead lips q clearer note In bor, |
an ever Triton blew from wreathed HARM
NnHe On mine ear Il rings. |
rough the deep caves Of thought L hear I
voice that sings:
ma thee more stately mans;ons. o nv soui
N the swim seasons roll.
cave thy lov-vsufted pasi
I each nav temple. ncbler than the last.
nee IRON heaven with Q dome more vast |
TN thou at length art fres.