[Gutenberg 45280] • The Wonderful "One-Hoss-Shay", and Other Poems

The Wonderful "One-Hoss-Shay" - And Other Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes & Sr.

THE DEACON'S MASTERPIECE:

ON LENDING A PUNCHBOWL.

THE LAST LEAF.

Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss-shay,

That was built in such a logical way?

It ran a hundred years to a day,

And then, of a sudden, it—ah, but stay,

I'll tell you what happened without delay.

Scaring the parson into fits,

Frightening people out of their wits,—

Have you ever heard of that, I say?

Seventeen hundred and fifty-five.

Georgius Secundus was then alive,—

Snuffy old drone from the German hive!

That was the year when Lisbon-town

Saw the earth open and gulp her down,

And Braddock's army was done so brown,

Left without a scalp to its crown.