Subject: The Last Leaf - by Oliver Wendell Holmes ~ Major Thomas Melville ~ A Participant in the Boston Tea Party The Last Leaf The poem was suggested by the sight of a figure well known to Bostonians in 1831/1832 - that of Major Thomas Melville, 'the last of the cocked hats,' as he was sometimes called. The Major had been a personable young man, very evidently, and retained evidence of it in the monumental pomp of age - which had something imposing and something odd about it for youthful eyes like mine. He was often pointed at as one of the "Indians" of the famous 'Boston Tea-Party' of 1774. His aspect among the crowds of a later generation reminded me of a withered leaf which has held to its stem through the storms of autumn and winter, and finds itself still clinging to its bough while the new growths of spring are bursting their buds and spreading their foliage all around it. I make this explanation for the benefit of those who have been puzzled by the lines, 'the last leaf upon the tree in the spring.' - Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Last Leaf 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 there; 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. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Major Thomas Melville, early revolutinary and Mason, died in 1832 and is buried in Copp's Hill Burying Grounds See also: http://www.wells1.com/coppshill/tea_list.htm Materials gathered/transcribed by Janice Farnsworth