Songs In Many Keys

Project Gutenberg EBook The Poetical Works of O. W. Holmes, Volume 4. Songs in Many Keys?#18 in our series by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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Title: The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Volume 4.
Songs in Many Keys
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Release Date: January, 2005 [Etext #7391]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[Most recently updated: April 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POETRY OF O. W. HOLMES, V4 ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger [[email protected] ]
THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
1893
(Printed in three volumes)
CONTENTS:
PROLOGUE?AGNES?THE PLOUGHMAN?SPRING?THE STUDY?THE BELLS?NON-RESISTANCE?THE MORAL BULLY?THE MIND'S DIET?OUR LIMITATIONS?THE OLD PLAYER?A POEM DEDICATION OF THE PITTSFIELD CEMETERY, SEPTEMBER 9,1850 TO GOVERNOR SWAIN?TO AN ENGLISH FRIEND?AFTER A LECTURE ON WORDSWORTH?AFTER A LECTURE ON MOORE?AFTER A LECTURE ON KEATS?AFTER A LECTURE ON SHELLEY?AT THE CLOSE OF A COURSE OF LECTURES?THE HUDSON?THE NEW EDEN?SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 22,1855?FAREWELL TO J. R. LOWELL?FOR THE MEETING OF THE BURNS CLUB, 1856?ODE FOR WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY?BIRTHDAY OF DANIEL WEBSTER?THE VOICELESS?THE TWO STREAMS?THE PROMISE?AVIS?THE LIVING TEMPLE?AT A BIRTHDAY FESTIVAL: TO J. R. LOWELL?A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO J. F. CLARKE?THE GRAY CHIEF?THE LAST LOOK: W. W. SWAIN?IN MEMORY OF CHARLES WENTWORTH UPHAM, JR.?MARTHA?MEETING OF THE ALUMNI OF HARVARD COLLEGE?THE PARTING SONG?FOR THE MEETING OF THE NATIONAL SANITARY ASSOCIATION?FOR THE BURNS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION,?AT A MEETING OF FRIENDS?BOSTON COMMON: THREE PICTURES?THE OLD MAN OF THE SEA?INTERNATIONAL ODE?VIVE LA FRANCE?BROTHER JONATHAN'S LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE
SONGS IN MANY KEYS
1849-1861
PROLOGUE
THE piping of our slender, peaceful reeds?Whispers uncared for while the trumpets bray;?Song is thin air; our hearts' exulting play?Beats time but to the tread of marching deeds,?Following the mighty van that Freedom leads,?Her glorious standard flaming to the day!?The crimsoned pavement where a hero bleeds?Breathes nobler lessons than the poet's lay.?Strong arms, broad breasts, brave hearts, are better worth?Than strains that sing the ravished echoes dumb.?Hark! 't is the loud reverberating drum?Rolls o'er the prairied West, the rock-bound North?The myriad-handed Future stretches forth?Its shadowy palms. Behold, we come,--we come!
Turn o'er these idle leaves. Such toys as these?Were not unsought for, as, in languid dreams,?We lay beside our lotus-feeding streams,?And nursed our fancies in forgetful ease.?It matters little if they pall or please,?Dropping untimely, while the sudden gleams?Glare from the mustering clouds whose blackness seems?Too swollen to hold its lightning from the trees.?Yet, in some lull of passion, when at last?These calm revolving moons that come and go--?Turning our months to years, they creep so slow--?Have brought us rest, the not unwelcome past?May flutter to thee through these leaflets, cast?On the wild winds that all around us blow.?May 1, 1861.
AGNES
The story of Sir Harry Frankland and Agnes Surriage is told in the ballad with a very strict adhesion to the facts. These were obtained from information afforded me by the Rev. Mr. Webster, of Hopkinton, in company with whom I visited the Frankland Mansion in that town, then standing; from a very interesting Memoir, by the Rev. Elias Nason, of Medford; and from the manuscript diary of Sir Harry, or more properly Sir Charles Henry Frankland, now in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
At the time of the visit referred to, old Julia was living, and on our return we called at the house where she resided.--[She was living June 10, 1861, when this ballad was published]--Her account is little more than paraphrased in the poem. If the incidents are treated with a certain liberality at the close of the fifth part, the essential fact that Agnes rescued Sir Harry from the ruins after the earthquake, and their subsequent marriage as related, may be accepted as literal truth. So with regard to most of the