The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Complete. Oliver Wendell Holmes

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СКАЧАТЬ From hill to hill.

      Soldiers, with guns,

       Making a nuisance of the blessed air,

       Child-crying bellmen, children in despair,

       Screeching for buns.

      Storms, thunders, waves!

       Howl, crash, and bellow till ye get your fill;

       Ye sometimes rest; men never can be still

       But in their graves.

EVENING

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      BY A TAILOR

      DAY hath put on his jacket, and around

       His burning bosom buttoned it with stars.

       Here will I lay me on the velvet grass,

       That is like padding to earth's meagre ribs,

       And hold communion with the things about me.

       Ah me! how lovely is the golden braid

       That binds the skirt of night's descending robe!

       The thin leaves, quivering on their silken threads,

       Do make a music like to rustling satin,

       As the light breezes smooth their downy nap.

      Ha! what is this that rises to my touch,

       So like a cushion? Can it be a cabbage?

       It is, it is that deeply injured flower,

       Which boys do flout us with;—but yet I love thee,

       Thou giant rose, wrapped in a green surtout.

       Doubtless in Eden thou didst blush as bright

       As these, thy puny brethren; and thy breath

       Sweetened the fragrance of her spicy air;

       But now thou seemest like a bankrupt beau,

       Stripped of his gaudy hues and essences,

       And growing portly in his sober garments.

      Is that a swan that rides upon the water?

       Oh no, it is that other gentle bird,

       Which is the patron of our noble calling.

       I well remember, in my early years,

       When these young hands first closed upon a goose;

       I have a scar upon my thimble finger,

       Which chronicles the hour of young ambition.

       My father was a tailor, and his father,

       And my sire's grandsire, all of them were tailors;

       They had an ancient goose—it was an heirloom

       From some remoter tailor of our race.

       It happened I did see it on a time

       When none was near, and I did deal with it,

       And it did burn me—oh, most fearfully!

      It is a joy to straighten out one's limbs,

       And leap elastic from the level counter,

       Leaving the petty grievances of earth,

       The breaking thread, the din of clashing shears,

       And all the needles that do wound the spirit,

       For such a pensive hour of soothing silence.

       Kind Nature, shuffling in her loose undress,

       Lays bare her shady bosom;—I can feel

       With all around me;—I can hail the flowers

       That sprig earth's mantle—and yon quiet bird,

       That rides the stream, is to me as a brother.

       The vulgar know not all the hidden pockets,

       Where Nature stows away her loveliness.

       But this unnatural posture of the legs

       Cramps my extended calves, and I must go

       Where I can coil them in their wonted fashion.

THE DORCHESTER GIANT

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      The "pudding-stone" is a remarkable conglomerate found very abundantly in the towns mentioned, all of which are in the neighborhood of Boston. We used in those primitive days to ask friends to ride with us when we meant to take them to drive with us.

      THERE was a giant in time of old,

       A mighty one was he;

       He had a wife, but she was a scold,

       So he kept her shut in his mammoth fold;

       And he had children three.

      It happened to be an election day,

       And the giants were choosing a king

       The people were not democrats then,

       They did not talk of the rights of men,

       And all that sort of thing.

      Then the giant took his children three,

       And fastened them in the pen;

       The children roared; quoth the giant, "Be still!"

       And Dorchester Heights and Milton Hill

       Rolled back the sound again.

      Then he brought them a pudding stuffed with plums,

       As big as the State-House dome;

       Quoth he, "There 's something for you to eat;

       So stop your mouths with your 'lection treat,

       And wait till your dad comes home."

      So the giant pulled him a chestnut stout,

       And whittled the boughs away;

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