Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1909-08-28

President Lincoln often recitcd
But now his nose Is thin,
And It rests upon his chin
Like stan.
And q crook is in his back
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.
has always struck me as especially
pat. His later poems, bill and Joe"
Dorothy O." The One IIoss Shay"
which was written to ridicule n 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
While on 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, nober than the
last.
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more
vast
TIL thou at length art free.
Leaving thine outgrown shell by lifc's
unresting sea!
From no conceivable standpoint can
serious fault be found with that poem
For classic diction pleasing form, mu-
sic, clenrneSs, imagery, mystic touch,
deep thought and noble appeal 1t is as
we'll 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 rare privilege to chat with tn
unborn and to talk into the ear of the
ages.
DR.. Holmes belonged to what he was
fond of calling "the Brahman caste of
New England" Other people speak of
1t as "thc Cambridge school Of poets"
the greatest group America has pro-
duced and one of the greatest in the
history of letters "Thc AutoCrat"
outlivcd 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 do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where | cling
But they did not smile. No. Their
eyes Shonc 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 he was the one remaining SYM
Dol.
Say this" he once charged an In
tervlewer, land you will say some
thing worth coming for: We made
American literature American when
there was no truly American litera-
ture. l am glad that the younger
writer's today are so inclined to write
what they themselves as Americans
think and see and feel. I believe in
being American"
There he sounded 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 In other fields
point to an equal achievement in this.
new era of invention, Il new indus
trialiSm, a new politics and new self
reliance and self upbuilding are coming
into birth here, and they must have an
adequate voice. These poets of the
nineteenth century were the singers of
the dawn, hcralding the fuller burst of
melody. They did make an American
literature and made that literature re-
spected the world around. In this they
rendered n greater service than they
could have known. When the fuller
chorus breaks 1t 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, DR.
Holmes home life was white. He mar
ried Amelia Lee Jackson, whose un-
c'iioIilitSSr Ivy anu lutl llHue IltE
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," when
that worthy was taking his last walk
with the schoolmistress, occurs this
touching scene:
Il think tried to speak twice with
out making myself distinctly audible
AT last l got out
the ques ION, VI
VIII you take RI
the long path n =
with meT Ger lN1l
tainly,' said the
schoolmistress.
with much pleas @l
ure. Think l ~
said, before you CH1
answer. If you II NMT.I
take the long n NAN
notb with ,na Ii \ | AVTNyYAMMA n