Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best-known poems
-
Old Ironsides
Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see … -
The Old Man Dreams
O For one hour of youthful joy!
Give back my twentieth spring!
I ’d rather laugh a bright-haired boy … -
The Voiceless
We count the broken lyres that rest
Where the sweet wailing singers slumber,
But o’er their silent sister’s breast … -
Hymn of Trust
O love Divine, that stooped to share
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear,
On Thee we cast each earth-born care, … -
Bill and Joe
Come, dear old comrade, you and I
Will steal an hour from days gone by,
The shining days when life was new, … -
From "The Iron Gate"
As on the gauzy wings of fancy flying
From some far orb I track our watery sphere,
Home of the struggling, suffering, doubting, dying, …
All poems (29)
- A Ballad of the Boston Tea-PartyNo! never such a draught was poured
- After a Lecture on KeatsThe wreath that star-crowned Shelley gave
- At a Birthday FestivalWe will not speak of years to-night,—
- Bill and JoeCome, dear old comrade, you and I
- Brother Jonathan’s Lament for Sister Caroline[March 25, 1861, South Carolina having adopted the Ordinance of Secession]
- Cacoethes ScribendiIf all the trees in all the woods were men;
- Contentment“Man wants but little here below.”
- Daniel WebsterWhen, stricken by the freezing blast,
- Epilogue to the Breakfast Table SeriesA crazy bookcase, placed before
- From "The Iron Gate"As on the gauzy wings of fancy flying
- Hymn of TrustO love Divine, that stooped to share
- La GrisetteAh, clemence! when I saw thee last
- Ode for a Social MeetingWith Slight Alterations by a Teetotaller
- Old IronsidesAy, tear her tattered ensign down!
- On Lending a Punch-BowlThis ancient silver bowl of mine, it tells of good old times,
- Rudolph the HeadsmanFrom “This Is It”
- The BoysFrom “Poems of the Class of ’Twenty-nine”
- The Chambered NautilusThis is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
- The Height of the RidiculousI wrote some lines once on a time
- The Last LeafI saw him once before,
- The Living TempleNot in the world of light alone,
- The Old Man DreamsO For one hour of youthful joy!
- The One-Hoss ShayOr, The Deacon’s Masterpiece
- The PloughmanClear the brown path to meet his coulter’s gleam!
- The Strong Heroic LineFriends of the Muse, to you of right belong
- The VoicelessWe count the broken lyres that rest
- To an InsectI Love to hear thine earnest voice,
- Under the VioletsHer hands are cold; her face is white;
- “Old Ironsides”[On the proposed breaking up of the United States frigate “Constitution”]