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| Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr 1809---1894 |
In 1831 he authored a wonderful poem entitled "The Last Leaf". This poem was praised by no less a literary giant than Edgar Allan Poe. Abraham Lincoln counted it as one of his favorites.
Funny, isn't it, how great works are sometimes largely forgotten over time?
Please read the poem slowly, and ponder the meaning of each verse.
The old man that Holmes writes about was a well known person in Boston in the first few decades of the 19th century. His name was Major Thomas Melville. He was a participant in the Boston Tea Party of 1774, and was the grandfather of famous author Herman Melville.
The Last Leaf
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1831
I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.
They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the crier on his round
Through the town.
But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone!"
The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.
My grandmamma has said---
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago---
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;
But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.
I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!
And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.
