Analysis of To Oliver Wendell Holmes
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
This, the last of Mr. Whittier's poems, was written but a few weeks before his death.
Among the thousands who with hail and cheer
Will welcome thy new year,
How few of all have passed, as thou and I,
So many milestones by!
We have grown old together; we have seen,
Our youth and age between,
Two generations leave us, and to-day
We with the third hold way,
Loving and loved. If thought must backward run
To those who, one by one,
In the great silence and the dark beyond
Vanished with farewells fond,
Unseen, not lost; our grateful memories still
Their vacant places fill,
And with the full-voiced greeting of new friends
A tenderer whisper blends.
Linked close in a pathetic brotherhood
Of mingled ill and good,
Of joy and grief, of grandeur and of shame,
For pity more than blame,--
The gift is thine the weary world to make
More cheerful for thy sake,
Soothing the ears its Miserere pains,
With the old Hellenic strains,
Lighting the sullen face of discontent
With smiles for blessings sent.
Enough of selfish wailing has been had,
Thank God! for notes more glad.
Life is indeed no holiday; therein
Are want, and woe, and sin,
Death and its nameless fears, and over all
Our pitying tears must fall.
Sorrow is real; but the counterfeit
Which folly brings to it,
We need thy wit and wisdom to resist,
O rarest Optimist!
Thy hand, old friend! the service of our days,
In differing moods and ways,
May prove to those who follow in our train
Not valueless nor vain.
Far off, and faint as echoes of a dream,
The songs of boyhood seem,
Yet on our autumn boughs, unflown with spring,
The evening thrushes sing.
The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late,
When at the Eternal Gate
We leave the words and works we call our own,
And lift void hands alone
For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul
Brings to that Gate no toll;
Giftless we come to Him, who all things gives,
And live because He lives.
Scheme | X AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKLL MMNN OOPP QQRR SSTT UUVV WWXX YYZZ |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111011011010110111 0101011101 110111 1111111101 11011 1111010111 1010101 101011011 110111 1001111101 111111 0011000101 10111 011110101001 110101 0101110111 01101 110001010 110101 1101101011 110111 0111010111 110111 1001111 1010101 1001011001 111101 0111010111 111111 110111001 110101 1011010101 10100111 10111010 110111 1111010101 110100 11110101101 0100101 11111100101 110011 1101110101 01111 1110101111 010101 01011100101 1100101 11010111101 011101 111110111 111111 111111111 010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,848 |
Words | 350 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 53 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:45 min read
- 114 Views
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"To Oliver Wendell Holmes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23259/to-oliver-wendell-holmes>.
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