ON THIS DATE
(was traveling, did not get posted yesterday)
Posted in born today, Creator or Creation, education, history, Literature, nature, poet American, today in history, uncategorized, tagged classmates, Harvard, My Country ’Tis of Thee, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Samuel F. Smith, Samuel Francis Smith, written at age 23 on October 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »
(was traveling, did not get posted yesterday)
Posted in uncategorized, tagged Harvard class reunion, Oliver Wendell Holmes on October 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote about Smith (1829 – Harvard class reunion)
There’s a nice youngster of excellent pith,
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith;
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal, “My country,” “of thee.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote about Smith (1888 – Smith’s 80th birthday)
Full many a poet’s labored lines
A century’s creeping waves shall hide—
The verse a people’s love enshrines
Stands like a rock that breasts the tide.
Time wrecks the proudest piles we raise,
The towers, the domes, the temples fall.
The fortress crumbles and decays—
One breath of song outlasts them all.
Samuel Francis Smith was born this date, 10/21/1808, Boston, MA. He, of course, authored “My Country ’Tis of Thee” (when just age 23) and “The Morning Light Is Breaking.” He served as a pastor, a professor, and a publisher (contributed to the Encyclopedia Americana). He and Holmes were classmates.