The bee., 1909-08-26

passed into the common speech OF the
race. To my mind The Nautilus Is
the noblest Of all, especially the In
lmitable last two stanzas:
Thanks for the heavenly message brought
by thee.
Child OF the wandering sea.
Cast from her lap forlorn.
From thy dead lips clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed
horn.
While on mine ear It rings
Through the deep caves OF thought hear
voice that sings:
Build thee more stately mansions. o my
soul.
AS the swift seasons ro'll
Leave thy low vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the
last.
Shut thee from heaven with a done more
vast
TIL thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by lfo's
unresting sea!
From no conceivable standpoint can
serious fault be found with that poem.
For classic dlction, pleasing form, mu-
sic, elearness, imagery, mystic touch,
deep thought and noble appeal 1t is as
well nigh perfect of its kind as our
human things attain. Whatever may
be said OF his other work, THE Char
bered Nautilus" makes Oliver Wendell
Holmes q member Of that
Choir invisible ---'''iss7ssss
Whose music is the gladness OF the world
1t is a rare privilege to chat with the
unborn and to talk into tie ear of the
secs.
DR.. Holmes belonged to what he was
fond OF calling "the Brahmap caste of
New EngIand."s Other people speak of
It as ''the Cambridge school Of poets,"
the greatest group America has pro.
duced and one OF the greatest in the
history Of letters. THE Autocrat"
outlived all the rest. He was eighty
eve at death, truly "The Last Leaf"
And If 1 should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring
Let them smile, as do now,
At the Old forsaken bough
Where l cling.
But they did not smile. No. Their
eyes shone too much for smiles. There
was a suggestion Of tears In the look;
also Of affection and reverence, both
for the gray poet end for his mighty
brethren who had passed on and of
whom he was the one remaining SYM
boI.
Say this he once charged an in
terviewer, "and you will say some
thing worth coming for: We made
American literature American when
there was no truly American litera-
ture. I am glad that the younger
writer's today are so inclined to write
what they themselves a. Americans
think and see and feel believe In
being American"
There he sounded a note that must
keep "a ringing until thsge is an
American literature greater than the
world has seen TIL now. The Cam
bridge SEoup were The Dpaphets Of
SO@o mlghtlee School thaA u to be. All
our accomplishments In other hslds
peint - an equal achievement In tAis-
A nsw era Of inventioa, q nav inaus.
triAham. q new politics and q new self
reliance ana self uDbVlaing ara cOmins
Into birth here, and thsy must have an
adequate voice. TASss poets Of the
ninStsenth century were the singers OF
the dawn, heraldipg the fuller burst OF
melody. They did make an American
literature and made that literature re.
Spected the world around. In this they
rendered a greater service than they
could have known. WAen the fuller
chorus breaks it will fulfill and reveal
the old. We shall than see how much
they accomplished who laid the founda
tions Of the temple Of American letters
Like his great associates, DR.
Holmes home life was white. He mar
ried Amelia Lee Jackson. whose un
selfishness. loyalty and tact made heI
an ideal wife for a man of letters
Mrs. Holmes and two children the
aged poet saw laid in the grave before
him. One son only survives him. and
he, too, Is named Oliver Wendell
Holmes and is a justice of the supreme
court Of the United States.
In the close Of the "Autocrat," wher
that worthy was taking his last wall
with the schoolmistress, occurs thii
touching scene:
II think tried to speak twice with
out making myself distinctly audible
At last got out n
the question. ~
'WtD you take
the long path
with meT Ger MpHi
tainly,' said the
schoolmistress,
With much pleas @
ure. Think ~
said, before you Sn1
answer. If you 1 MhFkI
take the long n @.&RNS1
path with me HI W11
now l shall In HsAru N,i''Z-,
terpret 1t that we ~
are to part no .SkSf=.KV4/