Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.

To J. G. Whittier on His Eightieth Birthday

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894)

FRIEND, whom thy fourscore winters leave more dear

Than when life’s roseate summer on thy cheek

Burned in the flush of manhood’s manliest year,

Lonely, how lonely! is the snowy peak

Thy feet have reached, and mine have climbed so near!

Close on thy footsteps mid the landscape drear

I stretch my hand thine answering grasp to seek,

Warm with the love no rippling rhymes can speak!

Look backwards! From thy lofty height survey

Thy years of toil, of peaceful victories won,

Of dreams made real, largest hopes outrun!

Look forward! Brighter than earth’s morning ray

Streams the pure light of Heaven’s unsetting sun,

The all unclouded dawn of life’s immortal day!