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and the online editor's note,
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I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
"They are gone!"The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.My grandmamma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago--
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.
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Frontispiece (signed by George Wharton Edwards): "He had a Roman nose and his cheek was like a rose in the snow."
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Title page. The Last Leaf Poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, illustrated by George Wharton Edwards and F. Hopkinson Smith, Houghton-Mifflin and Co., The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1895
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Copyrighted by Houghton-Mifflin and Co., 1885 and 1894.
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Decorative half-title signed by Edwards
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"I saw him once before As he passed by the door"
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"I saw him once before"
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"They say that in his prime
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found"
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"Not a better man was found"
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"By the Crier on his round
Through the town"
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"By the Crier on his round"
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"Through the town"
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"Through the town"
(signed by F. Hopkinson Smith)
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"But now he walks the streets"
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"But now he walks the streets"
(signed by Edwards)
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"The streets"
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"The streets"
(signed by F. Hopkinson Smith)
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"The mossy marbles rest"
(signed by Edwards)
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"The mossy marbles rest"
(signed by Smith)
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"The lips that he has prest"
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"The lips that he has prest"
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"in their bloom"
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"in their bloom"
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"And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb"
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"And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year"
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"On the tomb"
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"On the tomb"
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""My grandmamma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago,--"
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"My grandmamma has said--
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago,--"
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"Like a rose in the snow"
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"Like a rose in the snow"
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"in the snow"
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"in the snow"
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"But now his nose is thin
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff"
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"But now his nose is thin
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff"
(Edwards)
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"The old three-cornered hat
And the breeches and all that
Are so queer!"
(Edwards)
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"The old three-cornered hat
And the breeches and all that
Are so queer!"
(Edwards)
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" If I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring"
(Edwards)
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"If I should live to be"
(Edwards)
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"The last leaf upon the tree"
(Edwards)
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"in the spring"
(Smith)
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"in the spring"
(Edwards)
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"in the spring"
(Smith)
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"the old forgotten bough"
(Edwards)
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"the old forgotten bough"
(Smith)
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"Let them smile as I do now
At the old forgotten bough
Where I cling"
(Edwards)
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The End
(Smith)
.