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Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894

"The Poet at the Breakfast-Table"

From Thy hand
The worlds were cast; yet every leaflet claims
From that same hand its little shining sphere
Of star-lit dew; thine image, the great sun,
Girt with his mantle of tempestuous flame,
Glares in mid-heaven; but to his noontide blaze
The slender violet lifts its lidless eye,
And from his splendor steals its fairest hue,
Its sweetest perfume from his scorching fire.
I may just as well stop here as anywhere, for there is more of the
manuscript to come, and I can only give it in instalments.
The Young Astronomer had told me I might read any portions of his
manuscript I saw fit to certain friends. I tried this last extract on
the old Master.
It's the same story we all have to tell,--said he, when I had done
reading.---We are all asking questions nowadays. I should like to hear
him read some of his verses himself, and I think some of the other
boarders would like to. I wonder if he wouldn't do it, if we asked him!
Poets read their own compositions in a singsong sort of way; but they do
seem to love 'em so, that I always enjoy it. It makes me laugh a little
inwardly to see how they dandle their poetical babies, but I don't let
them know it. We must get up a select party of the boarders to hear him
read. We'll send him a regular invitation.


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