Rock Island Argus., 1909-08-25
pronounced his best effort and that


In his laugh.
has always struck me as especially
pat. His later poems, Bill and joe
Dorothy O. The One Hoss Shay"
which was written to ridicule IL certain
school of logic, and many others have
passed into the common speech of the
race. To my mind The Nautilus" is
the noblest of all, especially the in
imitable 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 mine ear 1t rings
Through the deep caves of thought hear
voice that sings:
Build thee more stately mansions. o my
soul.
AS the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the
Shut thee from heaven with dome more
vast
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by lifes
unresting sea.
From no conceivable standpoint can
serious fault be found with that poem
For classic diction, pleasing form, mu-
| sic, clearness, imagery, mystic touch,
deep thought and noble appeal it is as
well nigh perfect of its kind as our
human things attain. Whatever may
be said of his other work, THE Cham
bered Nautilus" makes Oliver Wendell
Holmes Il member of that
| Choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world
| 1t is Il rare privilege to chat with the
unborn and to talk into the ear of the
| ages.
DIR. Holmes belonged to what he was
fond of calling ''the Brahman caste of
New England" 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
five at death. truly The Last Leaf"
And if / should live TO be
| The last leaf upon the tree
| In the spring
| Let them smile. as l 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 suggestion of tears in the look
| also of affection and reverence, both
for the gray poet and for his mighty
brethren who had passed ON and of
whom lie was the one remaining SYM
Dol.
Say this" he once charged an in
terviewer, land you will say some
thing worth coming for: We made
American literature American when
there was no truly American litera-
| ture. 1 am glad that the younger
writers today are so inclined to write
what they themselves as Americans
think and see and feel. l believe in
being Americana --.---
There he sounded Il note that must
keep on ringing until there is an
American literature greater than the
world has seen till now. The Cam
bridge group were the prophets of
some mightier school that is to be. All
our accomplishments ins sother fields
point TO an equal achievement in this
y new era of invention. a new indus
triallsm, il new politics and Il new self
reliance and self upbuilding are coming
into birth here. and they must have an
adequate voice. These poets of the
nineteenth century We're the singers OF
the dawn, heralding 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. When the fuller
chorus breaks it will fulfill and reveal
the old. We shall then see how much
they accomplished who laid the founda
tions of the temple Of American letters
Like his great associates. DIR
Holmes home life was white. He mar
ried Amelia Lee Jackson, whose un
selfishneSs. loyalty and tact made heI
an ideal wife for 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 n 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 thi.
touching scene:
II think / tried to speak twice with
out making myself distinctly audible