HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL. Autograph manuscript signed of two portions from the poem "Urania: A Rhymed Lesson," the first n.d., but c.1846, the second dated at end 1893. 3 pages, 4to, together 78 lines in 6 stanzas, written on 2 leaves, each leaf neatly inlaid, bound with two engraved portraits and a printed copy of "Urania" (in its entirety) in blue morocco gilt, watered white silk endpages and free endpages, front cover and front endpage detached. The first excerpt, comprising two pages (paginated 5 and 6) is apparently from a working manuscript, with several corrections; it begins with the lines "O could such mockery reach our soul indeed..." and ends "Full to thine ear it bears the Father's word..." The second excerpt, a fair copy of later vintage begins "The air is hushed, the street is holy ground..." and ends "But tears still follow as they breathe along..." Holmes first read this long narrative poem before the Mercantile Library Association on 14 October 1846; it was subsequently published in Boston (BAL, 8745).