Holmes, Oliver Wendell

A Familiar Letter is a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Here's the full text of this work of poetry.

Read "The Dorchester Giant," by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "THERE was a giant in time of old, A mighty one was he; / He had a wife, but she was a scold, / So he kept her shut in his mammoth fold; / And he had children three."

Read "The Height of the Ridiculous," by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "I WROTE some lines once on a time / In wondrous merry mood, / And thought, as usual, men would say / They were exceeding good."

Read "The Last Leaf," by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "I saw him once before, / As he passed by the door, / And again / The pavement stones resound, / As he totters o'er the ground / With his cane."

Read The September Gale (1836), by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "I'M not a chicken; I have seen / Full many a chill September, / And though I was a youngster then, / That gale I well remember..."

Read "The Voiceless," by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "WE count the broken lyres that rest / Where the sweet wailing singers slumber, / But o'er their silent sister's breast / The wild-flowers who will stoop to number?"

Read "The Living Temple," by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "NOT in the world of light alone, / Where God has built his blazing throne, / Nor yet alone in earth below, / With belted seas that come and go..."

Read Martha (1861), by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "SEXTON! Martha's dead and gone; / Toll the bell! toll the bell!"

Learn more about Oliver Wendell Holmes, from from Adventures Among Books by Andrew Lang.