Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AN IMPROMPTU; NOT PREMEDITATED, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The clock has struck noon; ere it thrice tell the hours Last Line: Till our twentieth sweet summer was smiling again! Subject(s): Classmates; Schoolmates | ||||||||
THE clock has struck noon; ere it thrice tell the hours We shall meet round the table that blushes with flowers, And I shall blush deeper with shame-driven blood That I came to the banquet and brought not a bud. Who cares that his verse is a beggar in art If you see through its rags the full throb of his heart? Who asks if his comrade is battered and tanned When he feels his warm soul in the clasp of his hand? No! be it an epic, or be it a line, The Boys will all love it because it is mine; I sung their last song on the morn of the day That tore from their lives the last blossom of May. It is not the sunset that glows in the wine, But the smile that beams over it, makes it divine; I scatter these drops, and behold, as they fall, The day-star of memory shines through them all! And these are the last; they are drops that I stole From a wine-press that crushes the life from the soul, But they ran through my heart and they sprang to my brain Till our twentieth sweet summer was smiling again! | 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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