 | The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes |  |
TO THE REVEREND S. F. SMITH, D. D.
AUTHOR OF “MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE,” ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY
OCTOBER 21, 1888
While through the land the strains resound
What added fame can love impart
To him who touched the string that found
Its echoes in a Nation's heart?
What added fame can love impart
To him who touched the string that found
Its echoes in a Nation's heart?
No stormy ode, no fiery march,
His gentle memory shall prolong,
But on fair Freedom's climbing arch,
He shed the light of hallowed song.
His gentle memory shall prolong,
But on fair Freedom's climbing arch,
He shed the light of hallowed song.
Full many a poet's labored lines
A country's creeping waves will hide,—
The verse a people's love enshrines
Stands like the rock that breasts the tide.
A country's creeping waves will hide,—
The verse a people's love enshrines
Stands like the rock that breasts the tide.
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Time wrecks the proudest piles we raise,—
The towers, the domes, the temples fall;
The fortress ever crumbles and decays,—
One breath of song outlasts them all.
The towers, the domes, the temples fall;
The fortress ever crumbles and decays,—
One breath of song outlasts them all.
| The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes | |