and for many years he produced novels, delightful essays, and poems. He was the wittiest talker in Boston. This gift shone at the Saturday Club, to which belonged such men as Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Hawthorne, and Whittier. Holmes's genial happy life lasted until 1894, when all these old friends were dead. Near the end of his life he wrote, "I have always been good company to myself, either by day or night." Every American child knows "Old Ironsides," Holmes's first famous poem, written when he was just out of college. It is in the FOURTH READER. A greater poem is "The Chambered Nautilus," which tells how the soul may keep on growing all the time. But people familiar with the best poetry like his "Last Leaf" even better. It describes an old man in a very beautiful blending of the humorous and the grave. The last stanza reads: And if I should live to be The last leaf upon the tree Let them smile, as I do now, Where I cling. 5 10 THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT A HINDOO FABLE It was six men of Indostan (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind. The First approached the Elephant, Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl: "God bless me! but the Elephant Is very like a wall!" The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried, "Ho! what have we here So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant The Third approached the animal, And happening to take 5 10 15 20 The squirming trunk within his hands, "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant The Fourth reached out his eager hand, "What most this wondrous beast is like "Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!" The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can, This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!" The Sixth no sooner had begun Than, seizing on the swinging tail "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong! JOHN G. SAXE. HELPS TO STUDY 1. Tell the story in your own words. 2. What is the lesson? 3. Why was each partly right and wholly wrong? 4. What name do we give to a lie that has some truth in it? 5. Why is such a lie hard to contradict? For Study with the Glossary: Indostan, inclined, scope. Then read from the treasured volume The poem of thy choice, And lend to the rhyme of the poet The beauty of thy voice. And the night shall be filled with music, H. W. LONGFELLOW. 5 |