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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=472409" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Epilogue To The Breakfast-Table Series</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">AUTOCRAT-PROFESSOR-POET</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AT A BOOKSTORE</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Anno Domini 1972</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A CRAZY bookcase, placed before<br>A low-price dealer's open door;<br>Therein arrayed in broken rows<br>A ragged crew of rhyme and prose,<br>The homeless vagrants, waifs, and strays<br>Whose low estate this line betrays<br>(Set forth the lesser birds to lime)<br>YOUR CHOICE AMONG THESE BOORS 1 DIME!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ho! dealer; for its motto's sake<br>This scarecrow from the shelf I take;<br>Three starveling volumes bound in one,<br>Its covers warping in the sun.<br>Methinks it hath a musty smell,<br>I like its flavor none too well,<br>But Yorick's brain was far from dull,<br>Though Hamlet pah!'d, and dropped his skull.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Why, here comes rain! The sky grows dark,--<br>Was that the roll of thunder? Hark!<br>The shop affords a safe retreat,<br>A chair extends its welcome seat,<br>The tradesman has a civil look<br>(I 've paid, impromptu, for my book),<br>The clouds portend a sudden shower,--<br>I 'll read my purchase for an hour.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What have I rescued from the shelf?<br>A Boswell, writing out himself!<br>For though he changes dress and name,<br>The man beneath is still the same,<br>Laughing or sad, by fits and starts,<br>One actor in a dozen parts,<br>And whatsoe'er the mask may be,<br>The voice assures us, This is he.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I say not this to cry him down;<br>I find my Shakespeare in his clown,<br>His rogues the selfsame parent own;<br>Nay! Satan talks in Milton's tone!<br>Where'er the ocean inlet strays,<br>The salt sea wave its source betrays;<br>Where'er the queen of summer blows,<br>She tells the zephyr, 'I'm the rose!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And his is not the playwright's page;<br>His table does not ape the stage;<br>What matter if the figures seen<br>Are only shadows on a screen,<br>He finds in them his lurking thought,<br>And on their lips the words he sought,<br>Like one who sits before the keys<br>And plays a tune himself to please.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And was he noted in his day?<br>Read, flattered, honored? Who shall say?<br>Poor wreck of time the wave has cast<br>To find a peaceful shore at last,<br>Once glorying in thy gilded name<br>And freighted deep with hopes of fame,<br>Thy leaf is moistened with a tear,<br>The first for many a long, long year.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For be it more or less of art<br>That veils the lowliest human heart<br>Where passion throbs, where friendship glows,<br>Where pity's tender tribute flows,<br>Where love has lit its fragrant fire,<br>And sorrow quenched its vain desire,<br>For me the altar is divine,<br>Its flame, its ashes,--all are mine!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And thou, my brother, as I look<br>And see thee pictured in thy book,<br>Thy years on every page confessed<br>In shadows lengthening from the west,<br>Thy glance that wanders, as it sought<br>Some freshly opening flower of thought,<br>Thy hopeful nature, light and free,<br>I start to find myself in thee!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">. . . . . . . . . . .</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Come, vagrant, outcast, wretch forlorn<br>In leather jerkin stained and torn,<br>Whose talk has filled my idle hour<br>And made me half forget the shower,<br>I'll do at least as much for you,<br>Your coat I'll patch, your gilt renew,<br>Read you--perhaps--some other time.<br>Not bad, my bargain! Price one dime!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Oliver+Wendell+Holmes">Oliver Wendell Holmes</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=472409" data-title="Epilogue To The Breakfast-Table Series de Oliver Wendell Holmes" data-description="AUTOCRAT-PROFESSOR-POET

AT A BOOKSTORE

Anno Domini 1972

A CRAZY bookcase, placed before
A low-price dealer's open door;
Therein arrayed in broken rows
A ragged crew of rhyme and prose,
The homeless vagrants, waifs, and strays
Whose low estate t..."></div>
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