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The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendall Holmes
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendall Holmes Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Here comes the dealer's awkward string, With neck in rope and tail in knot,— Rough colts, with careless country-swing, In lazy walk or slouching trot. Wi... more »ld filly from the mountain-side, Doomed to the close and chafing thills, Lend me thy long, untiring stride To seek with thee thy western hills ! I hear the whispering voice of Spring, The thrush's trill, the robin's cry, Like some poor bird with prisoned wing That sits and sings, but longs to fly. Oh for one spot of living green,— One little spot where leaves can grow,— To love unblamed, to walk unseen, To dream above, to sleep below ! PROLOGUE. A PROLOGUE ? Well, of course the ladies -- know,— I have my doubts. No matter,—here we What is a Prologue ? Let our Tutor teach : Pro means beforehand ; logos stands for speech. 'Tis like the harper's prelude on the strings, The prima donna's courtesy ere she sings; Prologues in metre are to other pros As worsted stockings are to engine-hose. "The world's a stage,"—as Shakespeare said, one day; The stage a world—was what he meant to The outside world 's a blunder, that is clear; The real world that Nature meant is here. Here every foundling finds its lost mamma; Each rogue, repentant, melts his stern papa ; Misers relent, the spendthrift's debts are paid, The cheats are taken in the traps they laid ; One after one the troubles all are past Till the fifth act comes right side up at last, When the young couple, old folks, rogues, and all, Join hands, so happy at the curtain's fall. Here suffering virtue ever finds relief, And black-browed ruffians always come to grief. When the lorn damsel, with a frantic screech, And cheeks as hueless as a brandy-peach, Cries, "Help, kyind Heaven!" and drops upon her knees On the ...« less