The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes Part 26

THE NEW EDEN

MEETING OF THE BERKs.h.i.+RE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT STOCKBRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 13,1854

SCARCE could the parting ocean close, Seamed by the Mayflower's cleaving bow, When o'er the rugged desert rose The waves that tracked the Pilgrim's plough.

Then sprang from many a rock-strewn field The rippling gra.s.s, the nodding grain, Such growths as English meadows yield To scanty sun and frequent rain.

But when the fiery days were done, And Autumn brought his purple haze, Then, kindling in the slanted sun, The hillsides gleamed with golden maize.

The food was scant, the fruits were few A red-streak glistening here and there; Perchance in statelier precincts grew Some stern old Puritanic pear.

Austere in taste, and tough at core, Its unrelenting bulk was shed, To ripen in the Pilgrim's store When all the summer sweets were fled.

Such was his lot, to front the storm With iron heart and marble brow, Nor ripen till his earthly form Was cast from life's autumnal bough.

But ever on the bleakest rock We bid the brightest beacon glow, And still upon the th.o.r.n.i.e.s.t stock The sweetest roses love to blow.

So on our rude and wintry soil We feed the kindling flame of art, And steal the tropic's blus.h.i.+ng spoil To bloom on Nature's ice-clad heart.

See how the softening Mother's breast Warms to her children's patient wiles, Her lips by loving Labor pressed Break in a thousand dimpling smiles,

From when the flus.h.i.+ng bud of June Dawns with its first auroral hue, Till s.h.i.+nes the rounded harvest-moon, And velvet dahlias drink the dew.

Nor these the only gifts she brings; Look where the laboring orchard groans, And yields its beryl-threaded strings For chestnut burs and hemlock cones.

Dear though the shadowy maple be, And dearer still the whispering pine, Dearest yon russet-laden tree Browned by the heavy rubbing kine!

There childhood flung its rustling stone, There venturous boyhood learned to climb,-- How well the early graft was known Whose fruit was ripe ere harvest-time!

Nor be the Fleming's pride forgot, With swinging drops and drooping bells, Freckled and splashed with streak and spot, On the warm-breasted, sloping swells;

Nor Persia's painted garden-queen,-- Frail Houri of the trellised wall,-- Her deep-cleft bosom scarfed with green,-- Fairest to see, and first to fall.

When man provoked his mortal doom, And Eden trembled as he fell, When blossoms sighed their last perfume, And branches waved their long farewell,

One sucker crept beneath the gate, One seed was wafted o'er the wall, One bough sustained his trembling weight; These left the garden,--these were all.

And far o'er many a distant zone These wrecks of Eden still are flung The fruits that Paradise hath known Are still in earthly gardens hung.

Yes, by our own unstoried stream The pink-white apple-blossoms burst That saw the young Euphrates gleam,-- That Gihon's circling waters nursed.

For us the ambrosial pear--displays The wealth its arching branches hold, Bathed by a hundred summery days In floods of mingling fire and gold.

And here, where beauty's cheek of flame With morning's earliest beam is fed, The sunset-painted peach may claim To rival its celestial red.

What though in some unmoistened vale The summer leaf grow brown and sere, Say, shall our star of promise fail That circles half the rolling sphere,

From beaches salt with bitter spray, O'er prairies green with softest rain, And ridges bright with evening's ray, To rocks that shade the stormless main?

If by our slender-threaded streams The blade and leaf and blossom die, If, drained by noontide's parching beams, The milky veins of Nature dry,

See, with her swelling bosom bare, Yon wild-eyed Sister in the West,-- The ring of Empire round her hair, The Indian's wampum on her breast!

We saw the August sun descend, Day after day, with blood-red stain, And the blue mountains dimly blend With smoke-wreaths from the burning plain;

Beneath the hot Sirocco's wings We sat and told the withering hours, Till Heaven unsealed its h.o.a.rded springs, And bade them leap in flas.h.i.+ng showers.

Yet in our Ishmael's thirst we knew The mercy of the Sovereign hand Would pour the fountain's quickening dew To feed some harvest of the land.

No flaming swords of wrath surround Our second Garden of the Blest; It spreads beyond its rocky bound, It climbs Nevada's glittering crest.

G.o.d keep the tempter from its gate!

G.o.d s.h.i.+eld the children, lest they fall From their stern fathers' free estate,-- Till Ocean is its only wall!

SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY NEW YORK, DECEMBER 22, 1855

NEW ENGLAND, we love thee; no time can erase From the hearts of thy children the smile on thy face.

'T is the mother's fond look of affection and pride, As she gives her fair son to the arms of his bride.

His bride may be fresher in beauty's young flower; She may blaze in the jewels she brings with her dower.

But pa.s.sion must chill in Time's pitiless blast; The one that first loved us will love to the last.

You have left the dear land of the lake and the hill, But its winds and its waters will talk with you still.

"Forget not," they whisper, "your love is our debt,"

And echo breathes softly, "We never forget."

The banquet's gay splendors are gleaming around, But your hearts have flown back o'er the waves of the Sound; They have found the brown home where their pulses were born; They are throbbing their way through the trees and the corn.

There are roofs you remember,--their glory is fled; There are mounds in the churchyard,--one sigh for the dead.

There are wrecks, there are ruins, all scattered around; But Earth has no spot like that corner of ground.

Come, let us be cheerful,--remember last night, How they cheered us, and--never mind--meant it all right; To-night, we harm nothing,--we love in the lump; Here's a b.u.mper to Maine, in the juice of the pump!

Here 's to all the good people, wherever they be, Who have grown in the shade of the liberty-tree; We all love its leaves, and its blossoms and fruit, But pray have a care of the fence round its root.

We should like to talk big; it's a kind of a right, When the tongue has got loose and the waistband grown tight; But, as pretty Miss Prudence remarked to her beau, On its own heap of compost no biddy should crow.

Enough! There are gentlemen waiting to talk, Whose words are to mine as the flower to the stalk.

Stand by your old mother whatever befall; G.o.d bless all her children! Good night to you all!