[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
poems of a high order. The best, and the one by which he himself wished to be remembered, is The
Chambered Nautilus. No member of the New England group voiced higher ideals than we find in the noble
closing stanza of this poem:--
"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let
each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art
free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"
Probably The Last Leaf, which was such a favorite with Lincoln, would rank second. This poem is remarkable
for preserving the reader's equilibrium between laughter and tears. Some lines from The Voiceless are not
likely to be soon forgotten:--
"A few can touch the magic string, And noisy Fame is proud to win them:-- Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!"
He wrote no more serious poem than Homesick in Heaven, certain stanzas of which appeal strongly to
bereaved hearts. It is not easy to forget the song of the spirits who have recently come from earth, of the
mother who was torn from her clinging babe, of the bride called away with the kiss of love still burning on her
cheek, of the daughter taken from her blind and helpless father:--
"Children of earth, our half-weaned nature clings To earth's fond memories, and her whispered name Untunes
our quivering lips, our saddened strings; For there we loved, and where we love is home."
When Holmes went to Oxford in 1886, to receive an honorary degree, it is probable that, as in the case of
Irving, the Oxford boys in the gallery voiced the popular verdict. As Holmes stepped on the platform, they
called, "Did he come in the One-Hoss Shay?" This humorous poem, first known as _The Deacon's
Masterpiece_, has been a universal favorite. How the Old Hoss Won the Bet tells with rollicking humor what
the parson's nag did at a race. The Boys, with its mingled humor and pathos, written for the thirtieth reunion of
Part I.:_-- 109
his class, is one of the best of the many poems which he was so frequently asked to compose for special
celebrations. No other poet of his time could equal him in furnishing to order clever, apt, humorous verses for
ever recurring occasions.
PROSE.--He was nearly fifty when he published his first famous prose work. He had named the Atlantic
Monthly, and Lowell had agreed to edit it only on condition that Holmes would promise to be a contributor. In
the first number appeared _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table._ Holmes had hit upon a style that exactly
suited his temperament, and had invented a new prose form. His great conversational gift was now
crystallized in these breakfast table talks, which the Autocrat all but monopolizes. However, the other
characters at the table of this remarkable boarding house in Boston join in often enough to keep up the interest
in their opinions, feelings, and relations to each other. The reader always wants to know the impression that
the Autocrat's fine talk makes upon "the young man whom they call 'John.'" John sometimes puts his feelings
into action, as when the Autocrat gives a typical illustration of his mixture of reasoning and humor, in
explaining that there are always six persons present when two people are talking:--
[Illustration: THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE ]
"Three Johns.
1. The real John; known only to his Maker.
2. John's ideal John; never the real one, and often very unlike him.
3. Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, nor John's John, but often very unlike either.
"Three Thomases.
1. The real Thomas.
2. Thomas's ideal Thomas.
3. John's ideal Thomas."
"A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known to boarding-houses, was on its way to me," says
the Autocrat, "via this unlettered Johannes. He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, remarking
that there was just one apiece for him. I convinced him that his practical inference was hasty and illogical, but
in the meantime he had eaten the peaches." When John enters the debates with his crushing logic of facts, he
never fails to make a ten strike.
A few years after the Autocrat series had been closed, Holmes wrote _The Professor at the Breakfast Table_;
many years later The Poet at the Breakfast Table appeared; and in the evening of life, he brought out Over the
Teacups, in which he discoursed at the tea table in a similar vein, but not in quite the same fresh, buoyant,
humorous way in which the Autocrat talked over his morning coffee. The decline in these books is gradual,
although it is barely perceptible in the Professor. The Autocrat is, however, the brightest, crispest, and most
vigorous of the series, while Over the Teacups is the calmest, as well as the soberest and most leisurely.
Holmes wrote three novels, Elsie Venner, The Guardian Angel, and The Mortal Antipathy, which have been
called "medicated novels" because his medical knowledge is so apparent in them. These books also have a
moral purpose, each in turn considering the question whether an individual is responsible for his acts. The first
two of these novels are the strongest, and hold the attention to the end because of the interest aroused by the
characters and by the descriptive scenes.
Part I.:_-- 110
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Humor is the most characteristic quality of Holmes's writings. He
indeed is the only member of the New England group who often wrote with the sole object of entertaining
readers. Lowell also was a humorist, but he employed humor either in the cause of reform, as in The Biglow
Papers, or in the field of knowledge, in endeavoring to make his literary criticisms more expressive and more
certain to impress the mind of his readers.
Whenever Holmes wrote to entertain, he did not aim to be deep or to exercise the thinking powers of his
readers. Much of his work skims the surface of things in an amusing and delightful way. Yet he was too much
of a New Englander not to write some things in both poetry and prose with a deeper purpose than mere
entertainment. The Chambered Nautilus, for instance, was so written, as were all of his novels. His genial
humor is thus frequently blended with unlooked-for wisdom or pathos.
Whittier has been called provincial because he takes only the point of view of New England. The province of
Holmes is still narrower, being mainly confined to Boston. He expresses in a humorous way his own feelings,
as well as those of his fellow townsmen, when he says in _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table:_--
"Boston State House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the
tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar."
Like Irving, Holmes was fond of eighteenth-century English writers, and much of his verse is modeled after
the couplets of Pope. Holmes writes fluid and rippling prose, without a trace of effort. His meaning is never
left to conjecture, but is stated in pure, exact English. He not only expresses his ideas perfectly, but he seems
to achieve this result without premeditation. This apparent artlessness is a great charm. He has left America a
new form of prose, which bears the stamp of pure literature, and which is distinguished not so much for
philosophy and depth as for grace, versatility, refined humor, bright intellectual flashes, and artistic finish.
THE HISTORIANS
Three natives of Massachusetts and graduates of Harvard, William H. Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, and
Francis Parkman, wrote history in such a way as to entitle it to be mentioned in our literature. We cannot class
as literature those historical writings which are not enlivened with imagination, invested with at least an [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
poems of a high order. The best, and the one by which he himself wished to be remembered, is The
Chambered Nautilus. No member of the New England group voiced higher ideals than we find in the noble
closing stanza of this poem:--
"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let
each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art
free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"
Probably The Last Leaf, which was such a favorite with Lincoln, would rank second. This poem is remarkable
for preserving the reader's equilibrium between laughter and tears. Some lines from The Voiceless are not
likely to be soon forgotten:--
"A few can touch the magic string, And noisy Fame is proud to win them:-- Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!"
He wrote no more serious poem than Homesick in Heaven, certain stanzas of which appeal strongly to
bereaved hearts. It is not easy to forget the song of the spirits who have recently come from earth, of the
mother who was torn from her clinging babe, of the bride called away with the kiss of love still burning on her
cheek, of the daughter taken from her blind and helpless father:--
"Children of earth, our half-weaned nature clings To earth's fond memories, and her whispered name Untunes
our quivering lips, our saddened strings; For there we loved, and where we love is home."
When Holmes went to Oxford in 1886, to receive an honorary degree, it is probable that, as in the case of
Irving, the Oxford boys in the gallery voiced the popular verdict. As Holmes stepped on the platform, they
called, "Did he come in the One-Hoss Shay?" This humorous poem, first known as _The Deacon's
Masterpiece_, has been a universal favorite. How the Old Hoss Won the Bet tells with rollicking humor what
the parson's nag did at a race. The Boys, with its mingled humor and pathos, written for the thirtieth reunion of
Part I.:_-- 109
his class, is one of the best of the many poems which he was so frequently asked to compose for special
celebrations. No other poet of his time could equal him in furnishing to order clever, apt, humorous verses for
ever recurring occasions.
PROSE.--He was nearly fifty when he published his first famous prose work. He had named the Atlantic
Monthly, and Lowell had agreed to edit it only on condition that Holmes would promise to be a contributor. In
the first number appeared _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table._ Holmes had hit upon a style that exactly
suited his temperament, and had invented a new prose form. His great conversational gift was now
crystallized in these breakfast table talks, which the Autocrat all but monopolizes. However, the other
characters at the table of this remarkable boarding house in Boston join in often enough to keep up the interest
in their opinions, feelings, and relations to each other. The reader always wants to know the impression that
the Autocrat's fine talk makes upon "the young man whom they call 'John.'" John sometimes puts his feelings
into action, as when the Autocrat gives a typical illustration of his mixture of reasoning and humor, in
explaining that there are always six persons present when two people are talking:--
[Illustration: THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE ]
"Three Johns.
1. The real John; known only to his Maker.
2. John's ideal John; never the real one, and often very unlike him.
3. Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, nor John's John, but often very unlike either.
"Three Thomases.
1. The real Thomas.
2. Thomas's ideal Thomas.
3. John's ideal Thomas."
"A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known to boarding-houses, was on its way to me," says
the Autocrat, "via this unlettered Johannes. He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, remarking
that there was just one apiece for him. I convinced him that his practical inference was hasty and illogical, but
in the meantime he had eaten the peaches." When John enters the debates with his crushing logic of facts, he
never fails to make a ten strike.
A few years after the Autocrat series had been closed, Holmes wrote _The Professor at the Breakfast Table_;
many years later The Poet at the Breakfast Table appeared; and in the evening of life, he brought out Over the
Teacups, in which he discoursed at the tea table in a similar vein, but not in quite the same fresh, buoyant,
humorous way in which the Autocrat talked over his morning coffee. The decline in these books is gradual,
although it is barely perceptible in the Professor. The Autocrat is, however, the brightest, crispest, and most
vigorous of the series, while Over the Teacups is the calmest, as well as the soberest and most leisurely.
Holmes wrote three novels, Elsie Venner, The Guardian Angel, and The Mortal Antipathy, which have been
called "medicated novels" because his medical knowledge is so apparent in them. These books also have a
moral purpose, each in turn considering the question whether an individual is responsible for his acts. The first
two of these novels are the strongest, and hold the attention to the end because of the interest aroused by the
characters and by the descriptive scenes.
Part I.:_-- 110
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--Humor is the most characteristic quality of Holmes's writings. He
indeed is the only member of the New England group who often wrote with the sole object of entertaining
readers. Lowell also was a humorist, but he employed humor either in the cause of reform, as in The Biglow
Papers, or in the field of knowledge, in endeavoring to make his literary criticisms more expressive and more
certain to impress the mind of his readers.
Whenever Holmes wrote to entertain, he did not aim to be deep or to exercise the thinking powers of his
readers. Much of his work skims the surface of things in an amusing and delightful way. Yet he was too much
of a New Englander not to write some things in both poetry and prose with a deeper purpose than mere
entertainment. The Chambered Nautilus, for instance, was so written, as were all of his novels. His genial
humor is thus frequently blended with unlooked-for wisdom or pathos.
Whittier has been called provincial because he takes only the point of view of New England. The province of
Holmes is still narrower, being mainly confined to Boston. He expresses in a humorous way his own feelings,
as well as those of his fellow townsmen, when he says in _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table:_--
"Boston State House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the
tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar."
Like Irving, Holmes was fond of eighteenth-century English writers, and much of his verse is modeled after
the couplets of Pope. Holmes writes fluid and rippling prose, without a trace of effort. His meaning is never
left to conjecture, but is stated in pure, exact English. He not only expresses his ideas perfectly, but he seems
to achieve this result without premeditation. This apparent artlessness is a great charm. He has left America a
new form of prose, which bears the stamp of pure literature, and which is distinguished not so much for
philosophy and depth as for grace, versatility, refined humor, bright intellectual flashes, and artistic finish.
THE HISTORIANS
Three natives of Massachusetts and graduates of Harvard, William H. Prescott, John Lothrop Motley, and
Francis Parkman, wrote history in such a way as to entitle it to be mentioned in our literature. We cannot class
as literature those historical writings which are not enlivened with imagination, invested with at least an [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]