great pleasure It would certam by be very grateful to me to have that poem of my youth Ambalmed by association with the heet heloved am generation, Laught history tolce day by Governor Anders ma me that the President reactie "The last leaf" to time, entire, pow This at a time when memery. the great wen was in and then two thang mun habits of thought, I think it aught to be tolce It will ensur the menery of that frem, at least, and of werything else I have twitter shall be prgotter I think it will be long besse a pien that such a man loved to repeat will be read with indifferen With Many Mahi, Jam You obvince Mend OW Homer. THE LAST LEAF. BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. I saw him once before, As he passed by the door; The pavement stones resound, They say that in his prime, Not a better man was found By the crier on his round Through the town. But now he walks the streets, And he shakes his feeble head That it seems as if he said: 'They are gone." The mossy marbles rest On the lips that he has prest And the names he loved to hear, Have been carved for many a year, On the tomb. My grandmamma has said: Poor old lady, she is dead, That he had a Roman nose, And his cheek was like a rose But now his nose is thin, And it rests upon his chin And a crook is in his back, And a melancholy crack In his laugh. I know it is a sin For me to sit and grin At him here; But the old three-cornered hat,- Are so queer. And if I should live to be The last leaf upon the tree Let them laugh as I do now, "THE INQUIRY." Tell me, ye winged winds that round my pathway roar, Tell me, thou mighty deep, whose billows round me play, Stopped for awhile, and sighed to answer: "No!" And thou, serenest moon, that with such holy face Behind a cloud, the moon withdrew in woe Tell me, my secret soul; Oh! tell me, Hope and Faith, Faith, Hope and Love, best boon to mortals given, OH! WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL BE PROUD? The following is the poem with which Lincoln's name is most intimately associated. And on the occasion of the death of Zachary Taylor, Mr. Lincoln, who happened to be at Chicago when memorial services were held in honor of the sad event, delivered an impromptu eulogy at North Market Hall, as a part of which he recited the poem entire, except two verses, which he did not know: Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? The leaves of the oak and willow shall fade, As the young, and the old, and the low, and the high, The infant, a mother attended and loved, The maid on whose brow, on whose cheek, in whose eye, And alike from the minds of the living erased Are the memories of mortals who loved her and praised. The hand of the king, that the sceptre hath borne, The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap; The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven; |