 | The complete poetical works of Oliver Wendell Holmes |  |
Thus great Achilles, who had shown his zeal
In healing wounds, died of a wounded heel;
Unhappy chief, who, when in childhood doused,
Had saved his bacon had his feet been soused!
Accursed heel that killed a hero stout!
Oh, had your mother known that you were out,
Death had not entered at the trifling part
That still defies the small chirurgeon's art
With corns and bunions,—not the glorious John,
Who wrote the book we all have pondered on,
But other bunions, bound in fleecy hose,
To “Pilgrim's Progress” unrelenting foes!
In healing wounds, died of a wounded heel;
Unhappy chief, who, when in childhood doused,
Had saved his bacon had his feet been soused!
Accursed heel that killed a hero stout!
Oh, had your mother known that you were out,
40
That still defies the small chirurgeon's art
With corns and bunions,—not the glorious John,
Who wrote the book we all have pondered on,
But other bunions, bound in fleecy hose,
To “Pilgrim's Progress” unrelenting foes!
| The complete poetical works of Oliver Wendell Holmes | |