Classic and Contemporary Poetry
REMEMBER - FORGET, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: And what shall be the song tonight Last Line: And down goes twenty-nine! Subject(s): Aging; Classmates; Harvard University; Schoolmates | ||||||||
AND what shall be the song to-night, If song there needs must be? If every year that brings us here Must steal an hour from me? Say, shall it ring a merry peal, Or heave a mourning sigh O'er shadows cast, by years long past, On moments flitting by? Nay, take the first unbidden line The idle hour may send, No studied grace can mend the face That smiles as friend on friend; The balsam oozes from the pine, The sweetness from the rose, And so, unsought, a kindly thought Finds language as it flows. The years rush by in sounding flight, I hear their ceaseless wings; Their songs I hear, some far, some near, And thus the burden rings: "The morn has fled, the noon has past, The sun will soon be set, The twilight fade to midnight shade; Remember -- and Forget!" Remember all that time has brought -- The starry hope on high, The strength attained, the courage gained, The love that cannot die. Forget the bitter, brooding thought, -- The word too harshly said, The living blame love hates to name, The frailties of the dead! We have been younger, so they say, But let the seasons roll, He doth not lack an almanac Whose youth is in his soul. The snows may clog life's iron track, But does the axle tire, While bearing swift through bank and drift The engine's heart of fire? I lift a goblet in my hand; If good old wine it hold, An ancient skin to keep it in Is just the thing, we're told. We're grayer than the dusty flask, -- We're older than our wine; Our corks reveal the "white top" seal, The stamp of '29. Ah, Boys! we clustered in the dawn, To sever in the dark; A merry crew, with loud halloo, We climbed our painted bark; We sailed her through the four years' cruise, We'll sail her to the last, Our dear old flag, though but a rag, Still flying on her mast. So gliding on, each winter's gale Shall pipe us all on deck, Till, faint and few, the gathering crew Creep o'er the parting wreck, Her sails and streamers spread aloft To fortune's rain or shine, Till storm or sun shall all be one, And down goes TWENTY-NINE! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CLASS by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER FOR A STUDENT SLEEPING IN A POETRY WORKSHOP by DAVID WAGONER BILL AND JOE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE BOYS by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES THE OLD MAN DREAMS by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES GEORGE LEVISON OR, THE SCHOOLFELLOWS by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM BOOKS ET VERITAS by WILLIAM ROSE BENET CLASS POEM by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE THE GIRL FROM SOAP SUDS ROW by NATHALIA CRANE A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY [DECEMBER 16, 1773] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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