Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SONG FOR THE CENTENIAL CELEBRATION OF HARVARD COLLEGE, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: When the puritans came over Last Line: The british found so rough! Subject(s): Harvard University | ||||||||
WHEN the Puritans came over Our hills and swamps to clear, The woods were full of catamounts, And Indians red as deer, With tomahawks and scalping-knives, That make folks' heads look queer; Oh the ship from England used to bring A hundred wigs a year! The crows came cawing through the air To pluck the Pilgrims' corn, The bears came snuffing round the door Whene'er a babe was born, The rattlesnakes were bigger round Than the but of the old ram's horn The deacon blew at meeting time On every "Sabbath" morn. But soon they knocked the wigwams down, And pine-tree trunk and limb Began to sprout among the leaves In shape of steeples slim; And out the little wharves were stretched Along the ocean's rim, And up the little school-house shot To keep the boys in trim. And when at length the College rose, The sachem cocked his eye At every tutor's meagre ribs Whose coat-tails whistled by: But when the Greek and Hebrew words Came tumbling from his jaws, The copper-colored children all Ran screaming to the squaws. And who was on the Catalogue When college was begun? Two nephews of the President, And the Professor's son; (They turned a little Indian by, As brown as any bun;) Lord! how the seniors knocked about The freshman class of one! They had not then the dainty things That commons now afford, But succotash and hominy Were smoking on the board; They did not rattle round in gigs, Or dash in long-tailed blues, But always on Commencement days The tutors blacked their shoes. God bless the ancient Puritans! Their lot was hard enough; But honest hearts make iron arms, And tender maids are tough; So love and faith have formed and fed Our true-born Yankee stuff, And keep the kernel in the shell The British found so rough! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FAIR HARVARD by GEORGE SANTAYANA APOLOGIES TO HARVARD; THE PHI BETA KAPPA POEM, 1973 by JOHN UPDIKE HUMANITIES COURSE by JOHN UPDIKE WIDENER LIBRARY, READING ROOM by JOHN UPDIKE TWO STUDIES IN IDEALISM: 2. HARVARD '61: BATTLE FATIGUE by ROBERT PENN WARREN W. E. B. DUBOIS AT HARVARD by JAY WRIGHT COMMEMORATION ODE READ AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL V.B. NIMBLE, V.B. QUICK by JOHN UPDIKE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, IN NEW-ENGLAND by PHILLIS WHEATLEY A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY [DECEMBER 16, 1773] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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