The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Ticknor and Fields, 1864 - 410 pages

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Page 19 - AY, tear her tattered ensign down ! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky ; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon's roar ; — The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more ! Her deck, once red with heroes...
Page 59 - And if 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.
Page 58 - THE LAST LEAF I SAW him once before, As he passed by the door, And again The pavement stones resound, As he totters o'er the ground With his cane. They say that in his prime, Ere the pruning-knife of Time Cut him down, Not a better man was found By the Crier on his round Through Mie town.
Page 94 - THE BALLAD OF THE OYSTERMAN. IT was a tall young oysterman lived by the river-side, His shop was just upon the bank, his boat was on the tide ; The daughter of a fisherman, that was so straight and slim, Lived over on the other bank, right opposite to him. It was the pensive oysterman that saw a lovely maid, Upon a moonlight evening, a sitting in the shade ; He saw her wave her handkerchief, as much as if to say, " I 'm wide awake, young oysterman, and all the folks away.
Page 330 - My listening angel heard the prayer, And calmly smiling, said, " If I but touch thy silvered hair, Thy hasty wish hath sped. "But is there nothing in thy track To bid thee fondly stay, While the swift seasons hurry back To find the wished-for day?
Page 338 - And is there nothing yet unsaid, Before the change appears? Remember, all their gifts have fled With those dissolving years." "Why, yes"; for memory would recall My fond paternal joys; "I could not bear to leave them all— I'll take— my— girl— and— boys.
Page 95 - Then up arose the oysterman and to himself said he : '' I guess I'll leave the skiff at home, for fear that folks should see ; I read it in the story-book, that, for to kiss his dear, Leander swam the Hellespont, — and I will swim this here.
Page 178 - T was filled with caudle spiced and hot and handed smoking round. " But, changing hands, it reached at length a Puritan divine, Who used to follow Timothy, and take a little wine, But hated punch and prelacy ; and so it was, perhaps, He went to Leyden, where he found conventicles and schnaps.
Page 179 - ... mother's milk, and not a man afraid. That night, affrighted from his nest, the screaming eagle flew, He heard the Pequot's ringing whoop, the soldier's wild halloo; And there the sachem learned the rule he taught to kith and kin, "Run from the white man when you find he smells of Hollands gin!
Page 389 - HAS there any old fellow got mixed with the boys? If there has, take him out, without making a noise. Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite! Old Time is a liar ! We're twenty to-night ! We're twenty! We're twenty! Who says we are more? He's tipsy — young jackanapes! — show him the door! "Gray temples at twenty?

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