Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809–94), son of Abiel Holmes, was born at Cambridge, reared in the traditions of the Brahmin class, and graduated from Harvard in the class of 1829, which he helped to make famous by his long series of reunion poems. His first verse to bring him popularity was “
Old Ironsides” (1830). While studying medicine at Harvard and in Boston, he published in
The New‐England Magazine (1831–32) two papers entitled “
The Autocrat of the Breakfast‐Table,” which were precursors of his later famous work. After two years of study in Paris hospitals, he received his M.D. from Harvard (1836), and his collection of witty occasional
Poems (1836) was his last literary contribution for some time, since he turned to his chosen profession, holding the post of Professor of Anatomy at Dartmouth (1838–40) and publishing two important medical works,
Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions (1842) and
The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever (1843). From 1847 until his retirement in 1882, he was Parkman Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Harvard, and for the first six years also served as dean of the Harvard Medical School.
His stimulating qualities as a lecturer soon brought him before the public in the lyceums. As a witty, urbane conversationalist, he reigned supreme in Boston society and club life and became the unofficial poet laureate of all important gatherings in the intellectual “hub of the Universe.” As a reformer he was simply a scientific rationalist opposing the Calvinistic dogmas by which he had been reared. He was probably the most militant Unitarian among Boston laymen, and he attacked the religion of his fathers consistently in prose and poetry, notably in “
The Deacon's Masterpiece” (1858) and the more vituperative
The Moral Bully, which satirizes a preacher's hypocritical virtues.
When the
Atlantic Monthly was founded (1857), Holmes not only named it but also, as a leading contributor, was influenced to become primarily a man of letters. He contributed
The Autocrat of the Breakfast‐Table (1858), which he followed with
The Professor at the Breakfast‐Table (1860),
The Poet at the Breakfast‐Table (1872), and
Over the Teacups (1891), all reflections of the original. Selections from his endless flow of poetry peppered these volumes, notably “
The Chambered Nautilus” and “
The Deacon's Masterpiece” in the first volume. He also turned to fiction, and in
Elsie Venner (1861) wrote the best of his three “medicated novels.” All exhibit his theological and biological views and are studies of abnormal psychology, but
The Guardian Angel (1867) and
A Mortal Antipathy (1885) show diminishing ability. He reprinted from the
Atlantic two collections of essays,
Soundings from the Atlantic (1864) and
Pages from an Old Volume of Life (1883), wrote biographies of Motley (1879) and Emerson (1885), and collected a volume of
Medical Essays (1883). His addresses, lectures, and minor essays would constitute a large collection.
Besides the several enlarged editions of his
Poems, his verse was issued in many volumes, including
Songs in Many Keys (1826),
Songs of Many Seasons (1875),
The Iron Gate (1880), and
Before the Curfew (1888). Although most of his poems were written for specific occasions, some have transcended their occasional nature. Among the best known are
The Ballad of the Oysterman (1830), a parody of romantic balladry; “
The Last Leaf” (1831), on an aged survivor of the Boston Tea Party;
My Aunt (1831), on the “sad, ungathered rose” of his ancestral tree;
The Boys, written for the thirtieth reunion of his Harvard class;
Bill and Joe (1851), another reunion poem;
A Sunday Hymn (1860), which begins
Lord of all being! throned afar;
Contentment, a humorous poem on “simple pleasures,” from the
Autocrat;
The Living Temple, also from the
Autocrat, a hymn on man's “wondrous frame”;
Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline (1861), a patriotic poem on the secession of South Carolina; and
Dorothy Q. (1871), a sentimentally humorous piece on a family portrait.
