Poem At The Centennial Anniversary Dinner Of The Massachusetts Medical Society, June 8, 1881 Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Oliver Wendell Holmes

Poem At The Centennial Anniversary Dinner Of The Massachusetts Medical Society, June 8, 1881 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Three paths there be where Learning's favored sons	A
Trained in the schools which hold her favored ones	A
Follow their several stars with separate aim	B
Each has its honors each its special claim	B
Bred in the fruitful cradle of the East	C
First as of oldest lineage comes the Priest	C
The Lawyer next in wordy conflict strong	D
Full armed to battle for the right or wrong	D
Last he whose calling finds its voice in deeds	E
Frail Nature's helper in her sharpest needs	E
	-
Each has his gifts his losses and his gains	F
Each his own share of pleasures and of pains	F
No life long aim with steadfast eye pursued	G
Finds a smooth pathway all with roses strewed	G
Trouble belongs to man of woman born	H
Tread where he may his foot will find its thorn	H
	-
Of all the guests at life's perennial feast	G
Who of her children sits above the Priest	G
For him the broidered robe the carven seat	G
Pride at his beck and beauty at his feet	G
For him the incense fumes the wine is poured	G
Himself a God adoring and adored	G
His the first welcome when our hearts rejoice	I
His in our dying ear the latest voice	I
Font altar grave his steps on all attend	G
Our staff our stay our all but heavenly friend	G
	-
Where is the meddling hand that dares to probe	J
The secret grief beneath his sable robe	J
How grave his port how every gesture tells	K
Here truth abides here peace forever dwells	K
Vex not his lofty soul with comments vain	L
Faith asks no questions silence ye profane	L
	-
Alas too oft while all is calm without	G
The stormy spirit wars with endless doubt	G
This is the mocking spectre scarce concealed	G
Behind tradition's bruised and battered shield	G
He sees the sleepless critic age by age	M
Scrawl his new readings on the hallowed page	M
The wondrous deeds that priests and prophets saw	N
Dissolved in legend crystallized in law	N
And on the soil where saints and martyrs trod	G
Altars new builded to the Unknown God	G
His shrines imperilled his evangels torn	H
He dares not limp but ah how sharp his thorn	H
	-
Yet while God's herald questions as he reads	E
The outworn dogmas of his ancient creeds	E
Drops from his ritual the exploded verse	O
Blots from its page the Athanasian curse	O
Though by the critic's dangerous art perplexed	G
His holy life is Heaven's unquestioned text	G
That shining guidance doubt can never mar	P
The pillar's flame the light of Bethlehem's star	P
	-
	-
Strong is the moral blister that will draw	N
Laid on the conscience of the Man of Law	N
Whom blindfold Justice lends her eyes to see	Q
Truth in the scale that holds his promised fee	Q
What Has not every lie its truthful side	G
Its honest fraction not to be denied	G
Per contra ask the moralist in sooth	R
Has not a lie its share in every truth	R
Then what forbids an honest man to try	S
To find the truth that lurks in every lie	S
And just as fairly call on truth to yield	G
The lying fraction in its breast concealed	G
So the worst rogue shall claim a ready friend	G
His modest virtues boldly to defend	G
And he who shows the record of a saint	G
See himself blacker than the devil could paint	G
	-
What struggles to his captive soul belong	D
Who loves the right yet combats for the wrong	D
Who fights the battle he would fain refuse	T
And wins well knowing that he ought to lose	T
Who speaks with glowing lips and look sincere	U
In spangled words that make the worse appear	U
The better reason who behind his mask	V
Hides his true self and blushes at his task	V
What quips what quillets cheat the inward scorn	H
That mocks such triumph Has he not his thorn	H
	-
Yet stay thy judgment were thy life the prize	W
Thy death the forfeit would thy cynic eyes	W
See fault in him who bravely dares defend	G
The cause forlorn the wretch without a friend	G
Nay though the rightful side is wisdom's choice	I
Wrong has its rights and claims a champion's voice	I
Let the strong arm be lifted for the weak	X
For the dumb lips the fluent pleader speak	X
When with warm rebel blood our street was dyed	G
Who took unawed the hated hirelings' side	G
No greener civic wreath can Adams claim	B
No brighter page the youthful Quincy's name	B
	-
	-
How blest is he who knows no meaner strife	Y
Than Art's long battle with the foes of life	Y
No doubt assails him doing still his best	G
And trusting kindly Nature for the rest	G
No mocking conscience tears the thin disguise	W
That wraps his breast and tells him that he lies	W
He comes the languid sufferer lifts his head	G
And smiles a welcome from his weary bed	G
He speaks what music like the tones that tell	Z
Past is the hour of danger all is well	Z
How can he feel the petty stings of grief	A2
Whose cheering presence always brings relief	A2
What ugly dreams can trouble his repose	B2
Who yields himself to soothe another's woes	B2
	-
Hour after hour the busy day has found	G
The good physician on his lonely round	G
Mansion and hovel low and lofty door	C2
He knows his journeys every path explore	C2
Where the cold blast has struck with deadly chill	D2
The sturdy dweller on the storm swept hill	D2
Where by the stagnant marsh the sickening gale	E2
Has blanched the poisoned tenants of the vale	E2
Where crushed and maimed the bleeding victim lies	W
Where madness raves where melancholy sighs	W
And where the solemn whisper tells too plain	L
That all his science all his art were vain	L
	-
How sweet his fireside when the day is done	F2
And cares have vanished with the setting sun	F2
Evening at last its hour of respite brings	G2
And on his couch his weary length he flings	G2
Soft be thy pillow servant of mankind	G
Lulled by an opiate Art could never find	G
Sweet be thy slumber thou hast earned it well	Z
Pleasant thy dreams Clang goes the midnight bell	Z
	-
Darkness and storm the home is far away	H2
That waits his coming ere the break of day	H2
The snow clad pines their wintry plumage toss	I2
Doubtful the frozen stream his road must cross	I2
Deep lie the drifts the slanted heaps have shut	G
The hardy woodman in his mountain hut	G
Why should thy softer frame the tempest brave	J2
Hast thou no life no health to lose or save	J2
Look read the answer in his patient eyes	W
For him no other voice when suffering cries	W
Deaf to the gale that all around him blows	B2
A feeble whisper calls him and he goes	B2
	-
Or seek the crowded city summer's heat	G
Glares burning blinding in the narrow street	G
Still noisome deadly sleeps the envenomed air	K2
Unstirred the yellow flag that says Beware	K2
Tempt not thy fate one little moment's breath	R
Bears on its viewless wing the seeds of death	R
Thou at whose door the gilded chariots stand	G
Whose dear bought skill unclasps the miser's hand	G
Turn from thy fatal quest nor cast away	H2
That life so precious let a meaner prey	H2
Feed the destroyer's hunger live to bless	L2
Those happier homes that need thy care no less	L2
	-
Smiling he listens has he then a charm	M2
Whose magic virtues peril can disarm	M2
No safeguard his no amulet he wears	N2
Too well he knows that Nature never spares	N2
Her truest servant powerless to defend	G
From her own weapons her unshrinking friend	G
He dares the fate the bravest well might shun	F2
Nor asks reward save only Heaven's Well done	F2
	-
Such are the toils the perils that he knows	B2
Days without rest and nights without repose	B2
Yet all unheeded for the love he bears	N2
His art his kind whose every grief he shares	N2
	-
Harder than these to know how small the part	G
Nature's proud empire yields to striving Art	G
How as the tide that rolls around the sphere	U
Laughs at the mounds that delving arms uprear	U
Spares some few roods of oozy earth but still	D2
Wastes and rebuilds the planet at its will	D2
Comes at its ordered season night or noon	O2
Led by the silver magnet of the moon	O2
So life's vast tide forever comes and goes	B2
Unchecked resistless as it ebbs and flows	B2
	-
Hardest of all when Art has done her best	G
To find the cuckoo brooding in her nest	G
The shrewd adventurer fresh from parts unknown	P2
Kills off the patients Science thought her own	P2
Towns from a nostrum vender get their name	B
Fences and walls the cure all drug proclaim	B
Plasters and pads the willing world beguile	Q2
Fair Lydia greets us with astringent smile	Q2
Munchausen's fellow countryman unlocks	B2
His new Pandora's globule holding box	B2
And as King George inquired with puzzled grin	R2
How how the devil get the apple in	R2
So we ask how with wonder opening eyes	B2
Such pygmy pills can hold such giant lies	B2
	-
Yes sharp the trials stern the daily tasks	B2
That suffering Nature from her servant asks	B2
His the kind office dainty menials scorn	H
His path how hard at every step a thorn	H
What does his saddening restless slavery buy	S
What save a right to live a chance to die	S
To live companion of disease and pain	L
To die by poisoned shafts untimely slain	L
	-
Answer from hoary eld majestic shades	B2
From Memphian courts from Delphic colonnades	B2
Speak in the tones that Persia's despot heard	G
When nations treasured every golden word	G
The wandering echoes wafted o'er the seas	B2
From the far isle that held Hippocrates	B2
And thou best gift that Pergamus could send	G
Imperial Rome her noblest Caesar's friend	G
Master of masters whose unchallenged sway	H2
Not bold Vesalius dared to disobey	H2
Ye who while prophets dreamed of dawning times	B2
Taught your rude lessons in Salerno's rhymes	B2
And ye the nearer sires to whom we owe	S2
The better share of all the best we know	S2
In every land an ever growing train	L
Since wakening Science broke her rusted chain	L
Speak from the past and say what prize was sent	G
To crown the toiling years so freely spent	G
	-
List while they speak	X
In life's uneven road	G
Our willing hands have eased our brothers' load	G
One forehead smoothed one pang of torture less	B2
One peaceful hour a sufferer's couch to bless	B2
The smile brought back to fever's parching lips	B2
The light restored to reason in eclipse	B2
Life's treasure rescued like a burning brand	G
Snatched from the dread destroyer's wasteful hand	G
Such were our simple records day by day	H2
For gains like these we wore our lives away	H2
In toilsome paths our daily bread we sought	G
But bread from heaven attending angels brought	G
Pain was our teacher speaking to the heart	G
Mother of pity nurse of pitying art	G
Our lesson learned we reached the peaceful shore	U
Where the pale sufferer asks our aid no more	U
These gracious words our welcome our reward	G
Ye served your brothers ye have served your Lord	G