Additional Poems (1837-1848)

Project Gutenberg EBook The Poetical Works of O. W. Holmes,
Volume 2. Additional Poems (1837-1848)
#16 in our series by Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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Title: The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Volume 2.
Additional Poems (1837-1848)
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Release Date: January, 2005 [Etext #7389]
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[Most recently updated: April 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETRY OF O.
W. HOLMES, V2 ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger [[email protected]
]
THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
1893
(Printed in three volumes)


CONTENTS:
THE PILGRIM'S VISION
THE STEAMBOAT
LEXINGTON

ON LENDING A PUNCH BOWL
A SONG FOR THE
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF HARVARD COLLEGE,
THE ISLAND HUNTING-SONG
DEPARTED DAYS
THE
ONLY DAUGHTER
SONG WRITTEN FOR THE DINNER
GIVEN TO CHARLES
DICKENS, BY THE YOUNG MEN OF
BOSTON, FEBRUARY 1, 1842
LINES RECITED AT THE
BERKSHIRE JUBILEE
NUX POSTCOENATICA
VERSES
FOR AFTER-DINNER
A MODEST REQUEST, COMPLIED
WITH AFTER THE
DINNER AT PRESIDENT EVERETT'S
INAUGURATION
THE PARTING WORD
A SONG OF
OTHER DAYS
SONG FOR A TEMPERANCE DINNER TO
WHICH LADIES WERE INVITED
(NEW YORK MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION,
NOVEMBER, 1842) A SENTIMENT
A RHYMED LESSON
(URANIA)
AN AFTER-DINNER POEM (TERPSICHORE)
ADDITIONAL POEMS

1837-1848
THE PILGRIM'S VISION
IN the hour of twilight shadows
The Pilgrim sire looked out;
He
thought of the "bloudy Salvages "
That lurked all round about,
Of
Wituwamet's pictured knife
And Pecksuot's whooping shout;
For
the baby's limbs were feeble,
Though his father's arms were stout.
His home was a freezing cabin,
Too bare for the hungry rat;
Its roof
was thatched with ragged grass,
And bald enough of that;
The hole
that served for casement
Was glazed with an ancient hat,
And the
ice was gently thawing
From the log whereon he sat.
Along the dreary landscape
His eyes went to and fro,
The trees all clad in icicles,
The streams that did not flow;
A sudden
thought flashed o'er him,--
A dream of long ago,--
He smote his
leathern jerkin,
And murmured, "Even so!"
"Come hither, God-be-Glorified,
And sit upon my knee;
Behold the
dream unfolding,
Whereof I spake to thee
By the winter's hearth in
Leyden
And on the stormy sea.
True is the dream's beginning,--

So may its ending be!
"I saw in the naked forest
Our scattered remnant cast,
A screen of
shivering branches
Between them and the blast;
The snow was
falling round them,
The dying fell as fast;
I looked to see them
perish,
When lo, the vision passed.
"Again mine eyes were opened;--
The feeble had waxed strong,
The
babes had grown to sturdy men,
The remnant was a throng;
By
shadowed lake and winding stream,

And all the shores along,
The
howling demons quaked to hear
The Christian's godly song.

"They slept, the village fathers,
By river, lake, and shore,
When far
adown the steep of Time
The vision rose once more
I saw along the
winter snow
A spectral column pour,
And high above their broken
ranks
A tattered flag they bore.
"Their Leader rode before them,
Of bearing calm and high,
The
light of Heaven's own kindling
Throned in his awful eye;
These
were a Nation's champions
Her dread appeal to try.
God for the
right! I faltered,
And lo, the train passed by.
"Once more;--the strife is ended,
The solemn issue tried,
The Lord
of Hosts, his mighty arm
Has helped our Israel's side;
Gray stone
and grassy hillock
Tell where our martyrs died,
But peaceful smiles
the harvest,
And stainless flows the tide.
"A crash, as when some swollen cloud
Cracks o'er the tangled trees

With side to side, and spar to spar,
Whose smoking decks are these?

I know Saint George's blood-red cross,
Thou Mistress of the Seas,

But what is she whose streaming bars
Roll out before the breeze?
"Ah, well her iron ribs are knit,
Whose thunders strive to quell
The
bellowing throats, the blazing lips,
That pealed the Armada's knell!

The mist was cleared,--a wreath of stars
Rose o'er the crimsoned
swell,
And, wavering from its haughty