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]
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[Most recently updated: April 22, 2003]
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0. 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