Oliver Wendell Holmes: 1809-1894.

A genial humorist in verse and prose, a gracious and happy "poet of occasions," a shrewd observer of the significant commonplaces of experience, and a master in the art of easy discourse upon things in general, Dr. Holmes fairly holds his position in American letters, an original and conspicuous figure, while, perhaps, less highly gifted than any of these poets with whom he was so intimately associated.

The poet was born at Cambridge, August 29, 1809, in a picturesque gambrel-roofed house on the edge of the Harvard campus. His earliest literary explorations were, like those of Lowell, associated with his father's study, where, as he says, he "bumped about among books," from the time when he was hardly taller than one of his father's folios.

Holmes decided upon the legal profession and entered the Harvard Law School. It was at this period that he published his earliest verse. The first of his poems to attract attention was “Old Ironsides” (1830). This spirited lyric was inspired by the announcement that the frigate Constitution, then lying in the navy yard at Charlestown, was to be dismantled and broken up. Hastily writing the ringing lines which so effectively stirred the patriotic feelings of the nation, the young law student sent his verses to the editor of the Boston Advertiser, from whose columns they were immediately copied far and wide. A year after “Old Ironsides”, Holmes wrote “The Last Leaf”, one of his finest poems, which with its exquisite blending of humor and pathos still remains our choicest example of what is technically called "society verse." Nearly all the other poetry of this period is broadly humorous, and includes “The Ballad of the Oyster-Man”, “The Height of the Ridiculous”, “My Aunt”, and “The Comet”. In 1831, also he wrote for the New England Magazine two papers entitled “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table”, forerunners of the admirable series resumed twenty-six years later in the Atlantic Monthly. Thus at twenty-three, Oliver Wendell Holmes had already entered the fields of literary effort in which he was to win such happy success, and had duly registered his claim.

Dr. Holmes was forty-eight years old when the sparkling pages of the “Autocrat” began to appear. The scene of colloquy is at the breakfast-table in a typical Boston boarding-house. The "characters" that comprise the company are lightly sketched. There is, too, a tiny romance, as a relish; but the charm of the volume is in the conversation, which is simple and familiar, never commonplace.

Shrewd observations, witty comment, happily turned epigrams, pithy phrases, bits of wisdom are frequent. Here, too, Holmes introduced some of his best-known verse. “Contentment”, “Parson Turell's Legacy”, and the never-to-be-forgotten narrative of “The Deacon's Masterpiece”, “The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay” are among the humorous poems presented in the “Autocrat”. In the pages of this same volume also we find the poet's choicest lyrics: “The Voiceless,” “The Living Temple”, and “The Chambered Nautilus”.

The success of the “Autocrat” was so great that a new series of essays under the title “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table” was given to the Atlantic in 1858-1859, and published in book form in 1860. “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table” was completed in 1872.

A volume of miscellaneous papers, contributions to the magazines, appeared in 1863 with the title “Soundings from the Atlantic”. With other papers it included the interesting narrative “My Hunt after "The Captain," the author's account of his experiences during the search for his son who had been seriously wounded in one of the great battles of the war.

In 1861 Dr. Holmes made his first experiment in fiction, with a romantic novel “Elsie Venner”, which was followed by a second in similar vein “The Guardian Angel”, in 1867. Nearly twenty years afterward, he wrote a third novel “A Mortal Antipathy”, which was published in 1885. Of these the first two are the best. They are cleverly written and abound in the qualities so characteristic of the “Autocrat”; but they are the physiological studies of a physician rather than the narratives of an ordinary novelist. Both deal with the subject of prenatal influence and the relation of inherited tendencies to the conduct of individuals and their moral responsibility.

Dr. Holmes was the author of two notable biographies, a life of the historian Motley (1878), and a delightful memoir of Emerson (1884), whose philosophy had had a commanding influence in the intellectual development of Holmes himself.

The reappearance of the essayist in 1890 with a new volume, appropriately entitled “Over the Teacups”, was hailed with delight by the readers who had sat with the “Autocrat at breakfast” a generation before. The writer was eighty-one years old; but the old-time shrewdness of expression, the homely directness of speech, and the mirthful spirit, always tempered by charity and good will, had not been blunted by age. It is the Dictator, now, who presides at the table; there is an appreciative tinkling of the teaspoons, as he discourses after the manner of past days. “The Broomstick Train” belongs with his best humorous poems.

It is inevitable that Dr. Holmes should live in the memory of readers as the Autocrat; yet it was as a poet that he was ambitious of recognition. His best humorous narratives, “The Deacon's Masterpiece”, “Parson Turell's Legacy”, “How the Old Horse Won the Bet”, and “The Broomstick Train”, are classics of their kind. In “The Boys” (1859) and “Bill and Joe” (1868) we have the class poet at his best. His patriotic verse is not to be forgotten. The note struck in the thrilling lines of “Old Ironsides” is heard in the war-time poems “Union and Liberty” (1861) and “Voyage of the Good Ship Union” (1862); and again in “Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle” (1875). The strong religious feeling of the poet finds expression in a number of hymns which have a cherished place in the hearts of believers. “The Hymn of Trust”, “A Sun-Day Hymn” and the “Parting Hymn” are the most familiar. But after all, there are comparatively few of Holmes's serious compositions that reach the high standards of imaginative poetry; and of these it is “The Chambered Nautilus” which holds the favored place among the best-known and best-loved American poems. The later volumes of his verse were published as follows: “Songs in Many Keys” (1861), “Humorous Poems” (1865), “Songs of Many Seasons” (1874), “The Iron Gate” (1880), and “Before the Curfew” (1888).

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