The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Complete
Wit, Patriotism, and Meditative Verse from Boston's Fireside PoetBy Oliver Wendell Holmes
Length16h 27m
About this audiobook
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes—Complete gathers the verse of one of nineteenth-century America's most accomplished writers, combining lyric meditation, humor, satire, occasional poetry, and patriotic song. Holmes's poems move gracefully between domestic experience and public life, treating memory, mortality, friendship, science, religion, and national identity in a style distinguished by conversational ease, polished form, and intellectual wit. Familiar pieces such as "Old Ironsides," "The Last Leaf," and "The Chambered Nautilus" exemplify his ability to transform cultural controversy or natural imagery into memorable moral reflection. Read in its literary context, the collection belongs to the tradition of the New England "Fireside Poets," while also revealing Holmes's distinctive blend of sentimental feeling, urbane skepticism, and medical-scientific imagination. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) was not merely a poet but a physician, professor of anatomy and physiology, essayist, lecturer, and central figure in Boston's literary culture. His professional training encouraged an attentive interest in bodily life, development, and mortality, while his participation in the intellectual world of Harvard and nineteenth-century reform shaped his civic and philosophical concerns. These combined identities explain the range of a poet equally comfortable with affectionate domestic verse, learned allusion, comic observation, and public argument. This complete edition is recommended to readers seeking a broad, representative view of American Romantic-era poetry beyond its most frequently anthologized selections. It rewards close reading for its formal craftsmanship and historical perspective, yet remains accessible through Holmes's lively voice and humane humor. Students of nineteenth-century literature, historians of American culture, and general readers interested in the relationship between science, society, and poetry will find here an illuminating portrait of a richly versatile mind.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★ 2.9 (10)
Includes Goodreads
GenrePoetry
Length16 hrs 27 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 2, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Rivers to the Sea
26A SONG OF OTHER DAYS
2THE COMET
27SONG
3THE MUSIC-GRINDERS
28A SENTIMENT
4THE TREADMILL SONG
29A RHYMED LESSON (URANIA)
5THE SEPTEMBER GALE
30AN AFTER-DINNER POEM
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6THE HEIGHT OF THE RIDICULOUS
31THE MORNING VISIT
7THE LAST READER
32THE TWO ARMIES
8II.
33THE STETHOSCOPE SONG
9III.
34A PORTRAIT
10IV.
35A POEM
11V.
36A SENTIMENT
12THE PILGRIM'S VISION
37CANTO SECOND
13THE STEAMBOAT
38PART FIRST
14LEXINGTON
39PART SECOND
15ON LENDING A PUNCH-BOWL
40PART THIRD
16A SONG
41PART FOURTH
17THE ISLAND HUNTING-SONG
42PART FIFTH
18DEPARTED DAYS
43PART SIXTH
19THE ONLY DAUGHTER
44SPRING
20SONG
45THE STUDY
21LINES
46THE BELLS
22NUX POSTCOENATICA
47NON-RESISTANCE
23VERSES FOR AFTER-DINNER PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY, 1844
48THE MORAL BULLY
24A MODEST REQUEST
49THE MIND'S DIET
25THE PARTING WORD
50OUR LIMITATIONS
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