With Slight Alterations by a Teetotaller
COME! fill a fresh bumper,—for why should we go
While the [nectar vs. logwood] still reddens our cups as they flow?
Pour out the [rich juices vs. decoction] still bright with the sun,
Till o’er the brimmed crystal the [...
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Or, The Deacon’s Masterpiece
A Logical Story
HAVE you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,
That was built in such a logical way
It ran a hundred years to a day,
And then of a sudden, it—ah, but stay,
I ’ll tell you what happened without delay,... -
From “This Is It”
RUDOLPH, professor of the headsman’s trade,
Alike was famous for his arm and blade.
One day a prisoner Justice had to kill
Knelt at the block to test the artist’s skill.
Bare-armed, swart-visaged, gaunt, and shaggy-browed,
Rudolph... -
When, stricken by the freezing blast,
A nation’s living pillars fall,
How rich the storied page, how vast,
A word, a whisper, can recall!No medal lifts its fretted face,
Nor speaking marble cheats your eye;
Yet, while these pictured lines... -
[March 25, 1861, South Carolina having adopted the Ordinance of Secession]
SHE has gone,—she has left us in passion and pride—
Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side!
She has torn her own star from our firmament’s glow,
And turned on her brother the face of... -
[On the proposed breaking up of the United States frigate “Constitution”]
AY, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky;
Beneath it rung the battle-shout,
And burst... -
“Man wants but little here below.”
LITTLE I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone,
(A very plain brown stone will do,)
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one,
In yonder street that fronts the sun.Plain...
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This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,—
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea... -
I Love to hear thine earnest voice,
...
Wherever thou art hid,
Thou testy little dogmatist,
Thou pretty Katydid!
Thou mindest me of gentlefolks,—
Old gentlefolks are they,—
Thou say’st an undisputed thing
In such a solemn way. -
Clear the brown path to meet his coulter’s gleam!
Lo! on he comes, behind his smoking team,
With toil’s bright dew-drops on his sunburnt brow,
The lord of earth, the hero of the plough!First in the field before the reddening sun,
Last in the shadows...