The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
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The Complete
Poetical Works
of
Oliver Wendell
Holmes
Few American authors have made themselves members of so many families as the Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Oliver Wendell Holmes enraged the hidebound conservatives of his day and delighted everyone else.
For years the public anxiously awaited the appearance of each of his poems and essays. He never disappointed them. From "Old Ironsides," which he wrote in 1830, to his elegy to Francis Parkman sixty-three years later, he always found a popular response. And even today, who doesn't know "The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay" and "The Last Leaf," and perhaps Dr. Holmes's most famous poem, "The Chambered Nautilus," with its magnificent lines:
Build thee more stately mansions,
O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell
by life's unresting sea.
Charles Eliot Norton said of Holmes: "He was the last of a famous group of five men—Emerson, Lowell, Longfellow, Whittier and himself—firm friends, and all of the same stamp. … This school, which is now dead, was typically American, free, genial, optimistic, democratic, moral."
Jacket by John F. Morris
The Cambridge Edition of the Poets
HOLMES
EDITED BY
HORACE E. SCUDDER
The Cambridge Poets
| Edited by | |
| BROWNING | Horace E. Scudder |
| MRS. BROWNING | Harriet Waters Preston |
| BURNS | W. E. Henry |
| BYRON | Paul E. More |
| CHAUCER | F. N. Robinson |
| DRYDEN | George R. Noyes |
| ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS |
George L. Kittredge |
| Horace E. Scudder | |
| HOLMES | Horace E. Scudder |
| KEATS | Horace E. Scudder |
| LONGFELLOW | Horace E. Scudder |
| LOWELL | Horace E. Scudder |
| MILTON | Harris Francis Fletcher |
| POPE | Henry W. Boynton |
| SCOTT | Horace E. Scudder |
| SHAKESPEARE | W. A. Neilson |
| SHELLEY | George E. Woodberry |
| SPENSER | R. E. Neil Dodge |
| TENNYSON | William J. Rolfe |
| WHITTIER | Horace E. Scudder |
| WORDSWORTH | A. J. George |
The
Complete Poetical Works
of
OLIVER WENDELL
HOLMES
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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON
Cambridge Edition
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1872, 1877, 1878, 1880, 1888, 1890, 1891, BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
COPYRIGHT, 1874 AND 1875, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1895 AND 1903, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922, AND 1923,
BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
This Cambridge Edition of The Complete Poetic Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes is the fourth in a series which includes the poems and dramas of Longfellow, Whittier, and Browning. It follows in its scheme the plan of the previous volumes. The editor was at some disadvantage in not being able to avail himself of the Life of Dr. Holmes which is now in preparation, but the frequent autobiographical passages in the writings of the author enabled him to illustrate a career devoid, even more than that of most poets, of adventure or dramatic incident. The head-notes, in like manner, could frequently be supplied from comment occurring in the author's prose writings and in prefaces to separate publications of poems, bet very many of the poems are so self-explanatory that the reader requires no introduction.
The policy has been pursued, as in the former cases, of taking the latest collective edition issued in the poet's lifetime as the pattern to be followed both in text and in arrangement, but the opportunity has been used to include a few poems which were written after the latest edition appeared or had by some accident failed to receive the author's attention when be was making up his final collection; no attempt, however, has been made, in gathering the early poems, to go outside of the volumes in which they were originally included. It is assumed that Dr. Holmes when making up these volumes intentionally disregarded some of the poems scattered through periodicals. This is confirmed by the attitude which he took when his attention was called to the omission upon the occasion of the issue of the Riverside Edition. He refused to give them a refuge even in an appendix. The arrangement hore is the same as in the Riverside Edition, with some slight modification, chiefly caused by the introduction of new material. In accordance with the plan of this series and with Dr. Holmes's original intention when the Riverside Edition was prepared, the Juvenilia are placed in an appendix in smaller type. Throughout the volume, whether in head-notes or in those placed in the appendix, the editor's work is distinguished by the use of brackets.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cambridge Editions
The Cambridge Editions have hitherto been composed of complete one-volume editions of major English and American poets. The careful and scholarly editing attached to each volume has made the Cambridge name a byword in household and school libraries.
Now, after long consideration, the publishers have decided to add a number of prose writers to this imposing gallery of Cambridge poets. Each prose volume will contain the selected works of one man, chosen because his writings have had a continuing impact on present-day thinking. By the same token, contemporary writers will not be considered for this series, until there has been time for a later generation to test the value of what they wrote.
Outstanding scholars, with a demonstrated ability to write, will select and edit these editions with a comprehensive introduction and biographical sketch of each author. THE WORKS OF THOREAU, selected and edited by Henry Seidel Canby, is the first volume to be published. It sets the standard for each succeeding volume that will occupy a place on the Cambridge bookshelf.
Every volume will appear in a binding of attractive and enduring proportions, designed for the bookshelf rather than the pocket.
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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1931.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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