Happy birthday, Oliver Wendell Holmes

It is the birthday of writer Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809), who was a physician and professor in addition to writing prose and poetry. Among his best known books is The Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table (1858), a collection of essays in the voices of various residents of a New England boarding house. They first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Holmes also was popular for his poetry and became known as one of the Fireside Poets, a group of literary luminaries that included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and William Cullen Bryant. Here is a poem by Holmes that gently pokes fun at writers.