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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO O.W. HOLMES; ON HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Dear doctor, whose blandly invincible pen Last Line: By the length of bright shadow your soul leaves behind! Subject(s): Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894) | |||
DEAR Doctor, whose blandly invincible pen Has honored so often your great fellow-men With your genius and virtues, who doubts it is true That the world owes in turn, a warm tribute to you? Wheresoever rare merit has lifted its head From the cool country calm or the city's hotbed -- You were always the first to applaud it by name, And to smooth for its feet the harsh pathway to fame. Wheresoever beneath the broad rule of the sun, By some spirit elect, a grand deed has been done -- Its electrical spell like the lightning's would dart, Though the globe lay between, to thrill first in your heart! Philanthropist! poet! romancer! combined -- Ay! shrewd scientist too -- who shall fathom your mind, Shall plumb that strange sea to the uttermost deep, With its vast under-tides, and its rhythmical sweep? You have toiled in life's noon, till the hot blasting light Blinds the eyes that would guage your soul stature aright; But when eve comes at last, 't will be clear to mankind, By the length of bright shadow your soul leaves behind! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN EPISTLE TO DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES; ON HIS 75TH BIRTHDAY by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE TO O.W. HOLMES ON HIS SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON O. W. HOLMES ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER OUR AUTOCRAT by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER TO OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (WHITTIER'S LAST POEM) by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES by WILLIAM HAMILTON HAYNE FILLING AN ORDER by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE ASPECTS OF THE PINES by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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