During all these years when the profession of medicine had been of chief concern to him, and even before he had begun his medical studies, he had occasionally written poems that won a good deal of praise from friends, but brought no widespread notice. From his very earliest years he could feel very keenly and remember the melody of verse. "The low, soft chirp of the little bird heard in the nest, while his mother is brooding over him," he has written, "lives in his memory, I doubt not, through all the noisy carols of the singing season; so I remember the little songs my mother sang to me when I was old enough to run about, and had not outgrown the rhymes of the nursery." He enjoyed writing poems for the yearly meetings held by his college class long after their graduation, and he made several contributions to the Harvard _Collegian_. Just once in these early years had his fame traveled far, and that was the occasion when he wrote _Old Ironsides_. The frigate _Constitution_ that had served the country so well was to be done away with as a useless vessel. Learning of this, Holmes penned in haste the stanzas that stirred the nation's feelings and saved the old boat from destruction. It came, then, as a surprise to the American people, when upon the founding of the _Atlantic Monthly_ in 1857, the name of Holmes was signed to the articles that probably were most popular of all published in that magazine, to which the greatest literary men in the country were contributing. _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table_, was the title of the delightful series of humorous essays in which the author seemed really to be talking to his readers. A sort of story bound the numbers together. In the fourth issue appeared, perhaps, the best poem written by Holmes--_The Chambered Nautilus_. This was a favorite with him and was one of those poems of which he said: "I did not write it, but it was written through me," for he believed it to be a work of inspiration. _The Autocrat_, which is Holmes' greatest work, was followed by two similar but inferior series, _The Professor at the Breakfast Table_ and _The Poet at the Breakfast Table_. Between the last two series he had published in 1861 his novel _Elsie Venner_, followed in 1867 by _The Guardian Angel_, and in 1885 by _A Mortal Antipathy_. The first of these novels is considerably the best, but none of them ranks high, for they all deal with unusual people who because of weird inherited traits of mind are forced to go through strange if not impossible experiences. Still another kind of writing was attempted by Holmes. In 1878 he completed a biography of his intimate friend, the historian Motley, and in 1884 wrote a life of Emerson. These are not, however, among his best productions. _Over the Teacups_, similar to the _Breakfast Table_ papers, appeared in 1890, and was his last important work.