The Poet at the Breakfast-Table

Name: The Poet at the Breakfast-Table
Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

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American Literature Essays, Letters & Speeches

About This Book

A collection of conversational essays and occasional poems stages informal dialogues at a breakfast table where speakers trade observations on literature, science, memory, and human feeling. Witty sketches and philosophical asides examine the rise of professional specialization, the pleasures and vexations of writing, and responses to love, loss, and the afterlife, all delivered through varied personae and occasional letters. The narrator imagines a single sympathetic reader and shapes these meditations into a loose dramatic framework that blends criticism, anecdote, and lyrical reflection with shifting tones of humor and tenderness.

About the Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was an American physician, poet, and essayist, known for his contributions to literature and his role in the development of American thought in the 19th century. He was a prominent figure in the literary circles of his time and is best remembered for his work "A Mortal Antipathy," which explores themes of love and social interaction through a unique narrative style. Holmes was also a key member of the Fireside Poets, a group that included notable contemporaries such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Russell Lowell. His essays, particularly those in "Medical Essays, 1842-1882," reflect his keen observations on society and culture, showcasing his wit and intellect.