Oliver Wendell Holmes (Оливер Уэнделл Холмс)

Evening

BY A TAILOR

DAY hath put on his jacket, and around
His burning bosom buttoned it with stars.
Here will I lay me on the velvet grass,
That is like padding to earth's meagre ribs,
And hold communion with the things about me.
Ah me! how lovely is the golden braid
That binds the skirt of night's descending robe!
The thin leaves, quivering on their silken threads,
Do make a music like to rustling satin,
As the light breezes smooth their downy nap.

Ha! what is this that rises to my touch,
So like a cushion? Can it be a cabbage?
It is, it is that deeply injured flower,
Which boys do flout us with;—but yet I love thee,
Thou giant rose, wrapped in a green surtout.
Doubtless in Eden thou didst blush as bright
As these, thy puny brethren; and thy breath
Sweetened the fragrance of her spicy air;
But now thou seemest like a bankrupt beau,
Stripped of his gaudy hues and essences,
And growing portly in his sober garments.

Is that a swan that rides upon the water?
Oh no, it is that other gentle bird,
Which is the patron of our noble calling.
I well remember, in my early years,
When these young hands first closed upon a goose;
I have a scar upon my thimble finger,
Which chronicles the hour of young ambition.
My father was a tailor, and his father,
And my sire's grandsire, all of them were tailors;
They had an ancient goose,—it was an heirloom
From some remoter tailor of our race.
It happened I did see it on a time
When none was near, and I did deal with it,
And it did burn me,—oh, most fearfully!

It is a joy to straighten out one's limbs,
And leap elastic from the level counter,
Leaving the petty grievances of earth,
The breaking thread, the din of clashing shears,
And all the needles that do wound the spirit,
For such a pensive hour of soothing silence.
Kind Nature, shuffling in her loose undress,
Lays bare her shady bosom;—I can feel
With all around me;—I can hail the flowers
That sprig earth's mantle,—and yon quiet bird,
That rides the stream, is to me as a brother.
The vulgar know not all the hidden pockets,
Where Nature stows away her loveliness.
But this unnatural posture of the legs
Cramps my extended calves, and I must go
Where I can coil them in their wonted fashion.

Oliver Wendell Holmes’s other poems:

  1. The September Gale
  2. The Pilgrim’s Vision
  3. The Island Hunting-Song
  4. The Only Daughter
  5. Nux Postcoenatica

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • Percy Shelley (Перси Шелли) Evening (“The sun is set; the swallows are asleep”)
  • John Clare (Джон Клэр) Evening (“Tis evening; the black snail has got on his track”)
  • Charlotte Smith (Шарлотта Смит) Evening (“OH! soothing hour, when glowing day”)
  • Charles Mackay (Чарльз Маккей) Evening (“Tis sweet at morn among the corn”)
  • Joanna Baillie (Джоанна Бейли) Evening (“HOW lovely, Evening, is thy parting smile!”)
  • Robert Anderson (Роберт Андерсон) Evening (“How sweet ’tis to rove at the close of the day”)
  • Thomas Aird (Томас Эрд) Evening (“Those shouts proclaim the village school is out”)
  • Marjorie Pickthall (Марджори Пиктхолл) Evening (“WHEN the white iris folds the drowsing bee”)
  • Menella Smedley (Менелла Смедли) Evening (“It is the hour of evening”)




    To the dedicated English version of this website