Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE POET'S LOT, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: What is a poet's love? Last Line: With urn and cherub o'er thee! | ||||||||
WHAT is a poet's love? -- To write a girl a sonnet, To get a ring, or some such thing, And fustianize upon it. What is a poet's fame? -- Sad hints about his reason, And sadder praise from garreteers, To be returned in season. Where go the poet's lines? -- Answer, ye evening tapers! Ye auburn locks, ye golden curls, Speak from your folded papers! Child of the ploughshare, smile; Boy of the counter, grieve not, Though muses round thy trundle-bed Their broidered tissue weave not. The poet's future holds No civic wreath above him; Nor slated roof, nor varnished chaise, Nor wife nor child to love him. Maid of the village inn, Who workest woe on satin, (The grass in black, the graves in green, The epitaph in Latin,) Trust not to them who say, In stanzas, they adore thee; Oh rather sleep in churchyard clay, With urn and cherub o'er thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SEA DIALOGUE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A SUN-DAY HYMN [OR LAMENT] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AFTER A LECTURE ON KEATS by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BILL AND JOE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BIRTHDAY OF DANIEL WEBSTER by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BOSTON COMMON: 1630 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BOSTON COMMON: 1774 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BOSTON COMMON: 1869 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BROTHER JONATHAN'S LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE [DECEMBER 2O, 1860] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES CACOETHES SCRIBENDI by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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