Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE OLD TUNE; THIRTY-SIXTH VARIATION, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: This shred of song you bid me bring Last Line: "good-night, my dear old fellows!" Subject(s): Classmates; Death; Schoolmates; Dead, The | ||||||||
THIS shred of song you bid me bring Is snatched from fancy's embers; Ah, when the lips forget to sing, The faithful heart remembers! Too swift the wings of envious Time To wait for dallying phrases, Or woven strands of labored rhyme To thread their cunning mazes. A word, a sigh, and lo, how plain Its magic breath discloses Our life's long vista through a lane Of threescore summers' roses! One language years alone can teach: Its roots are young affections That feel their way to simplest speech Through silent recollections. That tongue is ours. How few the words We need to know a brother! As simple are the notes of birds, Yet well they know each other. This freezing month of ice and snow That brings our lives together Lends to our year a living glow That warms its wintry weather. So let us meet as eve draws nigh, And life matures and mellows, Till Nature whispers with a sigh, "Good-night, my dear old fellows!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY [DECEMBER 16, 1773] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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