 | The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes |  |
INTRODUCTION
FOR THE MEETING OF THE BURNS CLUB
JANUARY 25, 1856
I have come with the rest, I can hardly tell why,
With a line I will read you before it is dry.
I know I've no business among you, full well,
But I'm here, notwithstanding, and how, I will tell.
With a line I will read you before it is dry.
I know I've no business among you, full well,
But I'm here, notwithstanding, and how, I will tell.
It was not a billet beginning “Dear Sir;”
No missive like that would have coaxed me to stir;
Nor a ticket, announcing the “on” and the “at,”
And “requesting the honor,”—'twas better than that.
No missive like that would have coaxed me to stir;
Nor a ticket, announcing the “on” and the “at,”
And “requesting the honor,”—'twas better than that.
It was done by a visit, from one that you know,
Whose smile is unchilled by life's season of snow,
Whose voice is so winning, resist as you may,
You must do what it says, for it will have its way.
Whose smile is unchilled by life's season of snow,
Whose voice is so winning, resist as you may,
You must do what it says, for it will have its way.
It is true that at first I began to suggest
I should sit like a stranger apart from the rest;
But he said: “To no clan is our banquet confined,
For the heart of the poet belongs to mankind.”
I should sit like a stranger apart from the rest;
But he said: “To no clan is our banquet confined,
For the heart of the poet belongs to mankind.”
Then I timidly asked, “Can I run, at a pinch,
If our friends from the old world have learned how to lynch?”
For I thought with dismay of the Know-Nothing Crew,
And I fancied a yell—“He's a Know-Nothing too!”
If our friends from the old world have learned how to lynch?”
For I thought with dismay of the Know-Nothing Crew,
And I fancied a yell—“He's a Know-Nothing too!”
I thought of old Porteous, of Hare and of Burke;
I remembered the witches of Alloway Kirk;—
“Why bless you,” he said with a smile, “if you're cotched,
You will never be killed, you will only be Scotched!”
I remembered the witches of Alloway Kirk;—
“Why bless you,” he said with a smile, “if you're cotched,
You will never be killed, you will only be Scotched!”
So I came, and I'm here, with a line as I said;
I don't mean the verses that just have been read,
But the ones in my pocket, and so, if you please,
You shall hear them at once if you'll pardon me these.
I don't mean the verses that just have been read,
But the ones in my pocket, and so, if you please,
You shall hear them at once if you'll pardon me these.
| The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes | |