Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed Just the hour of the Earthquake shock! 110 End of the wonderful one-hoss shay 120 1858. 10 Busts, cameos, gems, such things as these, Which others often show for pride, I value for their power to please, And selfish churls deride; One Stradivarius, I confess, Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn, Nor ape the glittering upstart fool:Shall not carved tables serve my turn, But all must be of buhl? Give grasping pomp its double share, — Thus humble let me live and die, 70 1858. Nicest place that ever was seen,Colleges red and Common green, Sidewalks brownish with trees between. 20 Not in the shape of unbaked pies A kind of harbor it seems to be, One wave, two waves, three waves, four, - Pleasant place for boys to play;— Better keep your girls away; Hearts get rolled as pebbles do 30 40 Which countless fingering waves pursue, stone. Smith transferred it to one of the BROWNS, Who paid, it is plain, not five, but four. And now the payment, of course, was two. 80 (A. M. in '90? I've looked with care But nothing had altered the Parson's will. What should be done no man could tell, For the chair was a kind of nightmare 'About those conditions?' Well, now you go 140 And do as I tell you, and then you'll know. As much as to say that he allows. 1 For nearly forty years, from 1851 to 1889, Holmes never failed to bring a poem to the annual reunion of his college class. These poems, merely occasional,' and local as they were in origin, form a section in his collected works which is perhaps the most important, and, except for his best humorous narratives and his two finest lyrics, the most likely to survive; for, with all Holmes's characteristic wit and humor, they celebrate feelings that are broadly and typically American -class loyalty and college loyalty, and growing out of these, the loyalty of man's enduring friendship, and loyalty to country. The famous class of '29' counted among its members a chief-justice of Massachusetts, George T. Bigelow (the 'Judge' of this poem); a justice of the United That boy with the grave mathematical look Made believe he had written a wonderful book, And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true! So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too! States Supreme Court, B. R. Curtis (the boy with the three-decker brain'); the great preacher, James Freeman Clarke; Professor Benjamin Peirce ('that boy with the grave mathematical look'); and the author of America,' S. F. Smith. For a full list of members of the class, see the Cambridge Edition of Holmes's Poetical Works, p. 340. 1 Hon. Francis B. Crowninshield, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. 2 G. W. Richardson, of Worcester, Massachusetts. Hon. George L. Davis. |