Come, dear old comrade, you and I Will steal an hour from days gone by; The shining days when life was new, And all was bright with morning dew, The lusty days of long ago When you were Bill and I was Joe. * * * * * You've won the judge's ermined robe, You've taught your name to half the globe, You've sung mankind a deathless strain; You've made the dead past live again; The world may call you what it will, But you and I are Joe and Bill. * * * * * How Bill forgets his hour of pride, While Joe sits smiling at his side; How Joe, in spite of time's disguise Finds the old schoolmate in his eyes,-- Those calm, stern eyes that melt and fill, As Joe looks fondly up at Bill. Ah, pensive scholar, what is fame? A fitful tongue of leaping flame; A giddy whirlwind's fickle gust That lifts a pinch of mortal dust; A few swift years and who can show Which dust was Bill, and which was Joe? The weary idol takes his stand, Holds out his bruised and aching hand, While gaping thousands come and go,-- How vain it seems, his empty show! Till all at once his pulses thrill: 'Tis poor old Joe's God bless you, Bill! The earlier poems of Doctor Holmes are frequently written in the favorite measures of Pope and Hood. This is not at all strange when we remember that in the boyhood of Doctor Holmes these two poets were the most popular of all the English bards. In his later poems, however, we find an endless variety of rhythms, and the careful reader will notice in every instance, a wonderful adaptation of the various poetical forms to the particular thought the poet wishes to convey. How well Doctor Holmes understands the "mechanism" of verse may be seen from his _Physiology of Versification and the Harmonies of Organic and Animal Life_, a valuable article published in the _Boston Medical and Surgical Journal_ of January 7, 1875. "Respiration," he says, "has an intimate relation to the structure of metrical compositions, and the reason why octosyllabic verse is so easy to read aloud is because it follows more exactly than any other measure the natural rhythm of the respiration.... "The ten syllable, or heroic line has a peculiar majesty from the very fact that its pronunciation requires a longer respiration than is ordinary.