Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was the Mark Twain of Boston poetry: irreverent, brilliant, and impossible to ignore. This collection gathers his most beloved verses, anchored by the legendary 'One-Hoss-Shay,' a poem about a carriage so flawlessly constructed it runs for a century before collapsing all at once, a comic meditation on mortality that has delighted readers since the 1850s. Also included are 'The Last Leaf,' a wry tribute to Revolutionary War veterans fading from memory, and 'On Lending a Punchbowl,' a sparkling bit of social satire about the anxieties of lending expensive glassware. Holmes writes with the precision of a man who also practiced medicine, every syllable calculated for maximum effect. His wit cuts sharp but never cruel; his humor bubbles up unexpectedly, like a punchline you didn't see coming. These are poems meant to be read aloud, passed around, and quoted at dinner parties, verse for a world that still valued cleverness as a virtue.
