1 For nearly forty years, from 1851 to 1889, Holmes never failed to bring a poem to the annual reunion of his college class. These poems, merely occasional,' and local as they were in origin, form a section in his collected works which is perhaps the most important, and, except for his best humorous narratives and his two finest lyrics, the most likely to survive; for, with all Holmes's characteristic wit and humor, they celebrate feelings that are broadly and typically American class loyalty and college loyalty, and growing out of these, the loyalty of man's enduring friendship, and loyalty to country.

The famous class of '29' counted among its members a chief-justice of Massachusetts, George T. Bigelow (the 'Judge' of this poem); a justice of the United

That boy with the grave mathematical look Made believe he had written a wonderful book,

And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true!

So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too!

States Supreme Court, B. R. Curtis (the 'boy with the three-decker brain'); the great preacher, James Freeman Clarke; Professor Benjamin Peirce ('that boy with the grave mathematical look '); and the author of America,' S. F. Smith. For a full list of members of the class, see the Cambridge Edition of Holmes's Poetical Works, p. 340.

1 Hon. Francis B. Crowninshield, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

2 G. W. Richardson, of Worcester, Massachusetts. 3 Hon. George L. Davis.

He said, 'Well now, old fellow, I'm thinking that you and I,

If we act like other people, shall be older by and by;

What though the bright blue ocean is smooth as a pond can be,

And when on the western summits the fading light appears,

the broadest sea.

fifty years.

There have been both men and women whose hearts were firm and bold, But there never was one of fifty that loved to say 'I'm old;'

So any elderly person that strives to shirk his years,

Make him stand up at a table and try him by his peers.

Now here I stand at fifty, my jury gathered round;

Sprinkled with dust of silver, but not yet silver-crowned,

Ready to meet your verdict, waiting to hear it told;

Guilty of fifty summers; speak! Is the verdict old?

40

No Say that he's getting wrinkled and weak in back and limb,

say that his hearing fails him; say that his sight grows dim;

Losing his wits and temper, but pleading, to make amends,

The youth of his fifty summers he finds in his twenty friends.

20

1859.

(1877.)

Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as

they fall,

In rushing river-tides !

Yon stream, whose sources run

Turned by a pebble's edge,

1 This and the three following poems are from the

Professor at the Breakfast Table.

included in that volume.

The Boys' also is