Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) By: Sarah Frances Hafner Keylon Carpenter Alex Cervantes

1. Oliver Wendell Holmes(1809-1894)By: Sarah Frances HafnerKeylon CarpenterAlex Cervantes

2. Early influences Oliver Wendell Holmes was born on August 29, 1809 in Cambridge, Massachusetts As a young boy Oliver enjoyed exploring the library of his father. At that time he was exposed to many great poets, his first poem was recorded at the age of 13

3. Oliver Holmes attended Harvard University in 1836, where he studied law and received his degree in medicine

4. Oliver was a very important man • He was a doctor, professor, lecturer, and author • Most importantly, he wrote poetry

5. A Hobby In 1830 at the age of 21 he started to write poetry on a regular basis and by the end of the year he had written over 50 poems , 4 of which would become his most famous works of all. One of his poems was so powerful and profound that it saved the destruction of the USS. Constitution

6. His most important works were the “Breakfast-Table” Series

7. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table Collection of essays Originally published in the Atlantic monthly in 1857 and 1858 before being collected in book form

8. DEPARTED DAYS • YES, dear departed, cherished days, Could Memory's hand restore Your morning light, your evening rays, From Time's gray urn once more, Then might this restless heart be still, This straining eye might close, And Hope her fainting pinions fold, While the fair phantoms rose. But, like a child in ocean's arms, We strive against the stream, Each moment farther from the shore Where life's young fountains gleam; Each moment fainter wave the fields, And wider rolls the sea; The mist grows dark, -- the sun goes down, -- Day breaks, -- and where are we?

9. “Dorothy Q” • This poem is about his maternal great-grandmother • O Damsel Dorothy! Dorothy Q.! Strange is the gift that I owe to you; Such a gift as never a king Save to daughter or son might bring,— All my tenure of heart and hand, All my title to house and land; Mother and sister and child and wife And joy and sorrow and death and life! (lines 33–40)

10. Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny • 1861 • Young women’s mother who is bitten by a rattlesnake while pregnant, making her baby half-woman, half-snake

11. Appreciation Edgar Allen Poe commented on one of Oliver’s poems and said that it was “one of the finest works in the English language” Abraham Lincoln’s law partner even said "I have heard Lincoln recite it, praise it, laud it, and swear by it"