Verses from the Oldest Poolio

Project Gutenberg EBook The Poetical Works of O. W. Holmes, Volume 12. Verses from the Oldest Portfolio?#26 in our series by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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Title: The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Volume 12.
Verses from the Oldest Portfolio
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Release Date: January, 2005 [Etext #7399]?[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, V12 ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger [[email protected] ]
THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
1893
(Printed in three volumes)
CONTENTS:
VERSES FROM THE OLDEST PORTFOLIO
FIRST VERSES: TRANSLATION FROM THE THE MEETING OF THE DRYADS THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR?THE TOADSTOOL?THE SPECTRE PIG?TO A CAGED LION?THE STAR AND THE WATER-LILY?ILLUSTRATION OF A PICTURE: "A SPANISH GIRL REVERIE"?A ROMAN AQUEDUCT?FROM A BACHELOR'S PRIVATE JOURNAL?LA GRISETTE?OUR YANKEE GIRLS?L'INCONNUE?STANZAS?LINES BY A CLERK?THE PHILOSOPHER TO HIS LOVE?THE POET'S LOT?TO A BLANK SHEET OF PAPER?TO THE PORTRAIT OF "A GENTLEMAN" IN THE ATHENAEUM GALLERY THE BALLAD OF THE OYSTERMAN?A NOONTIDE LYRIC?THE HOT SEASON?A PORTRAIT?AN EVENING THOUGHT. WRITTEN AT SEA?THE WASP AND THE HORNET?"QUI VIVE?"
VERSES FROM THE OLDEST PORTFOLIO
FROM THE "COLLEGIAN," 1830, ILLUSTRATED ANNUALS, ETC.
Nescit vox missa reverti.--Horat. Ars Poetica.?Ab lis qua non adjuvant quam mollissime oportet pedem referre.-- Quintillian, L. VI. C. 4.
These verses have always been printed in my collected poems, and as the best of them may bear a single reading, I allow them to appear, but in a less conspicuous position than the other productions. A chick, before his shell is off his back, is hardly a fair subject for severe criticism. If one has written anything worth preserving, his first efforts may be objects of interest and curiosity. Other young authors may take encouragement from seeing how tame, how feeble, how commonplace were the rudimentary attempts of the half-fledged poet. If the boy or youth had anything in him, there will probably be some sign of it in the midst of his imitative mediocrities and ambitious failures. These "first verses" of mine, written before I was sixteen, have little beyond a common academy boy's ordinary performance. Yet a kindly critic said there was one line which showed a poetical quality:--
"The boiling ocean trembled into calm."
One of these poems--the reader may guess which--won fair words from Thackeray. The Spectre Pig was a wicked suggestion which came into my head after reading Dana's Buccaneer. Nobody seemed to find it out, and I never mentioned it to the venerable poet, who might not have been pleased with the parody. This is enough to say of these unvalued copies of verses.
FIRST VERSES
PHILLIPS ACADEMY, ANDOVER, MASS., 1824 OR 1825
TRANSLATION FROM THE ENEID, BOOK I.
THE god looked out upon the troubled deep?Waked into tumult from its placid sleep;?The flame of anger kindles in his eye?As the wild waves ascend the lowering sky;?He lifts his head above their awful height?And to the distant fleet directs his sight,?Now borne aloft upon the billow's crest,?Struck by the bolt or by the winds oppressed,?And well he knew that Juno's vengeful ire?Frowned from those clouds and sparkled in that fire.?On rapid pinions as they whistled by?He calls swift Zephyrus and Eurus nigh?Is this your glory in a noble line?To leave your confines and to ravage mine??Whom I--but let these troubled waves subside--?Another tempest and I'11 quell your pride!?Go--bear our message to your master's ear,?That wide as ocean I am despot here;?Let him sit monarch in his barren caves,?I wield the trident and control the waves?He said, and as the gathered vapors break?The swelling ocean seemed a peaceful lake;?To lift their ships the graceful nymphs essayed?And the strong trident lent its powerful aid;?The dangerous banks are sunk beneath the main,?And the