AL 1173.273.5

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
MAR 5 1941

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

University Press, Cambridge:
Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.

ΤΟ

THE MOST INDULGENT OF READERS,

THE KINDEST OF CRITICS,

MY BELOVED MOTHER,

ALL THAT IS LEAST UNWORTHY OF HER

IN THIS VOLUME

Is Dedicated

BY HER AFFECTIONATE SON.

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 1st, 1861.