Oliver Wendell Holmes

1809-1894

Life

Family

Son of Abiel and Sarah (Wendell) Holmes
Married Amelia Lee Jackson, June 15, 1840
One child: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) justice of the Supreme Court

Homes

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts
Paris, France

Career

poet
physician
college professor
writer

Chronology

1809: born on August 29 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1825: entered Harvard College
1829: received B.A. degree from Harvard University
1829-30: entered Dane Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1830: first published poems appear in the Harvard Collegian
1832: printed two brief, witty essays entitled The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table in the New England Magazine
1830-33: studied medicine at Boston's Tremont Medical School
1833-35: intensive study of medicine in Paris, France
1836: professor of anatomy and physiology, Dartmouth College; received M.D. degree from Harvard University
1836-37: won three Boylston Prizes for medical essays, The Nature and Treatment of Neuralgia, Facts and Traditions, Respecting the Existence of Indigenous Intermittent Fever in New England, and The Utility and Importance of Direct Exploration in Medical Practice
1840: married Amelia Lee Jackson June 15
1841: son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., distinguished Supreme Court Justice is born
1847-82: professor of anatomy, Harvard University
1849: gave up his medical practice
1857: printed the third of his "Autocrat" essay series in a magazine, the Atlantic Monthly
1861: completed the first of his three novels, a fictional work entitled Elsie Venner
1867: edited the magazine, the Atlantic Almanac with D.G. Mitchell; completed his second novel The Guardian Angel
1870: delivered the essay Mechanism in Thought and Morals as a lecture before the Phi Beta Kappa society of Harvard University
1882: resigned from Harvard Medical School
1882-94: member of the Massachusetts Medical Society
1885: printed his third novel A Mortal Antipathy
1886: traveled to Europe where he received honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh
1894: died on October 7 in Boston, Massachusetts

Issues and Themes

    Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in 1809 to Abiel Holmes and Sarah Wendell. His father was a Congregational minister in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother, however, was unusually liberal on issues of religion, and it was she who influenced Oliver at a young age to be very inquisitive about the world around him. After attending a Calvinist prep school, he entered Harvard College and graduated as Class Poet in 1829. He went on to Dane Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1830, but decided he wanted to become a doctor. He then enrolled at Boston's Tremont Medical School and studied there until 1833. He finished up his medical training in Paris, France and received his M.D. degree from Harvard.
    Holmes served as the professor of anatomy and physiology at the Harvard Medical School. It was during this period that Holmes flourished as a great writer and poet. Holmes contributed greatly to the medical field early in the 19th century. He produced several controversial essays on his theories dealing with diseases like puerperal fever and neuralgia. It was Holmes who suggested the name "anathesia" for the physiological condition induced by Dr. William Morton in 1846.
    Holmes was also an excellent conversationalist. This was evident in many of his literary works such as his brief, witty essays entitled Autocrat of the Breakfast Table he produced from 1832 to 1857. In American Authors, Stanley Kunitz says of these essays "...they exhibit the most endearing characteristics of the eloquent Doctor--his pointed wit, his universal interest, his homely wisdom, his conversational skill. It has the flavor of spoken word..."(378). These essays were merely "...samples 'dipped' from the running streams of his thoughts" (378). Holmes never "talked above" his audience. He used words that the common man could relate to, even though he was extremely intelligent.
    Holmes interest in scientific, political, and historical matters is revealed in many of his poetic works, such as his highly popular poem "Old Ironsides." While only twenty-one years old, Holmes produced this response to the proposed destruction of the USS Constitution battleship that served in the War of 1812. "Old Ironsides" is a powerful poem that arouses public thoughts against the demolition of the ship. Alice Petry writes in Critical Survey of Poetry that "...by manipulating tone and imagery, Holmes produced a poem in which is above all intensely emotional; indeed, those universal emotions upon which it plays--the honoring of the dead of war, the veneration of the old, the love of military glory--are probably as potent today as they were in the 1830's" (1372).
Above all, Oliver Wendell Holmes will be remembered for his ability to write good comic poetry. Edwin Whipple says in Essays and Reviews of Holmes: "Many of his pleasant lyrics seem not so much the offspring of wit, as of fancy and sentiment turned in humorous direction. His manner of satirizing the fobles, follies, vanities, and affectations of conventional life is altogether peculiar and original..."(64,65).

Work

My Aunt

My aunt, my dear unmarried aunt! Long years have o'er her flown; Yet still she strains the aching clasp That binds her virgin zone; I know it hurts her,--though she looks As cheerful as she can; Her waist is ampler than her life; For Life is but a span. My aunt! my poor deluded aunt! Her hair is almost gray; Why will she train that winter curl In such a spring-like way? How can she lay her glasses down, And say she reads as well, When through a double convex lens She just makes to spell? Her father--grandpapa! forgive This erring lip its smiles-- Vowed she would make the finest girl Within a hundred miles; He sent her to a stylish school 'Twas in her thirteenth June; And with her, as the rules required, "Two towels and a spoon." They braced my aunt against a board, To make her straight and tall; They laced her up, they starved her down, To make her light and small; They pinched her feet, they singed her hair; They screwed it up with pins;-- Oh, never mortal suffered more In penance for her sins. So, when my precious aunt was done, My grandsire brought her back (By daylight, lest some rabid youth Might follow on the track;) "Ah!" said my grandsire, as he shook Some powder in his pan, "What could this lovely creature do Against a desperate man!" Alas! nor chariot, nor barouche, Nor bandit cavalcade, Tore from the trembling father's arms His all-accomplished maid. For her how happy had it been! And Heaven had spared to me To see one sad, ungathered rose On my ancestral tree.

Explication

Written in 1831.
The rhyme scheme is a, b, c, b, d, e, f, e
The poem is comprised of six stanzas; each stanza is eight lines long.

Tone

The tone, or implied attitude towards the subject of this poem, is a sympathetic feeling for the aunt. The details of the poem's language helped me determine that Holmes had pity on the aunt's life and the way she was forced to live it. He gives specific accounts his aunt's situation to create a feeling that she was sheltered all of her life and missed many chances to be happy.

Diction

Robert DiYanni states, "Poets choose a particular word because it suggests what they want to suggest. They convey feelings and indirectly imply ideas rather than state them outright" (399).
An example of diction would be how Holmes used the word "deluded" in the second stanza to suggest that his "aunt" was mislead in life. Deluded also has the connotation of being tricked or deceived. I think the word "deluded" evokes a feeling that his aunt was not treated fairly or given a chance to live her own life.
In the last stanza, Holmes referred to the aunt as a "maid".

The denotation, or dictionary meaning, of the word "maid" is two fold: "1. an unmarried woman or girl, especially when young: virgin; 2. a female servant" (Dict...337). From the meanings of this word, the reader can be left with the impression that not only is the aunt unmarried, but also is a servant of her father, with little or no freedom of her own.

Imagery

DiYanni says of imagery, "Poems are concrete and the specific--in details that stimulate our senses--for it is through these senses that we perceive the world" (406). Holmes creates several images in My Aunt so that we can gain a better understanding of the aunt's background and why she gains sympathy from the speaker.
From certain details Holmes gives us, we can picture the aunt as an older lady. He states, "Her hair is almost gray; /...that winter curl;"
In the fourth stanza, Holmes describes vividly the way the aunt was treated at the school her father sent her to:

They braced my aunt against a board, To make her straight and tall; They laced her up, they starved her down, To make her light and small;

Holmes triggers our sense of touch with the following lines in the fourth stanza: "They pinched her feet, they singed her hair / They screwed it up with pins;"

Anaphora

Anaphora is "the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of lines" (Canada 3/9/99).
Holmes employs anaphora in several places in My Aunt. An example is "My aunt! my dear unmarried aunt! / My aunt! my poor deluded aunt!" The use of this anaphora stresses the sympathy he has for his "aunt".

Rhythm

Holmes uses a rhyme scheme a, b, c, b, d, e, f, e.
The poem alternates between eight-syllable and six-syllable lines in each stanza. This rhythm helps to express the meaning and convey feeling in the reader, as well as to create a smooth flow in the work.
The tempo of the poem suggests how quickly the aunt's life has passed her by. Even Holmes puns in the last line of the first stanza: "Life is but a span." The rhythm of My Aunt is very important in the readability of the poem as well. The reader is pleasantly led from one line to the next throughout the poem.

Balance

The balance in the poem between a satirical Holmes and the pathos of the lonely woman is clearly evident in My Aunt. The reader expects the lady to be torn "from the trembling father's arms / His all-accomplished maid." However, that did not come, and Holmes ends the poem with a cliché:

And Heaven had spared to me To see one sad, ungathered rose On my ancestral tree.

Had the aunt married she would have been happy.

Unfamiliar Terms

barouche - a four wheeled shallow carriage with a driver's seat high in front, two double seats inside, one facing back and one facing front (Dict...178).

cavalcade - a procession of riders or carriages, usually on horse drawn carriages or on horseback (Dict...356).

deluded - 1. to mislead the mind or judgment of; impose on 2. deceive; trick (Dict...337).

Bibliography

Canada, Mark. "Walt Whitman."

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/whitman.htm

Commire, Anne. "Oliver Wendell Holmes" in Something about the Author. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984,
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Reading, Fiction, Poetry, Drama and the Essay. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc, 1994, 399-406.
Haycraft, Howard. "Oliver Wendell Holmes" in American Authors 1600-1900. Ed. by Stanley Kunitz. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1938, 377-379.
Petry, Alice H. "Oliver Wendell Holmes" in Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. by Frank Magill. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Salem Press, 1963, 1371-1374.
Simmonds, Edward. "Oliver Wendell Holmes" Bibliomania Online Library http://www.bibliomania.com/Reference/Simonds/SHAL/p4-chap5.html [8 March 1998].
Tucker, Martin. "Oliver Wendell Holmes" in Moulton's Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1966, 323-330.
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Ed. by Frederick Mish. Springfield, Massachusetts: Meriam Webster Publishers, 1988.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Ed. by Philip Gove. Springfield, Massachusetts: Meriam Webster Publishers, 1986.

Written by Joshua McPherson, student, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Edited by Mark Canada