Breathed From a Woman’s Heart

I thank you most cordially for sending me your beautiful volume of poems. They tell me that they are breathed from a woman's heart as plainly as the fragrance of a rose reveals its birthplace...

I cannot help feeling flattered that the author of such impassioned poems should have thought well enough of my own productions to honor me with the kind words I find on the blank leaf of a little book that seems to me to hold leaves torn out of the heart's record.

Note: Today is the anniversary of the death of the American physician, poet, and humorist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who died on this day in 1894.

In 1889, Louise Chandler Moulton published her book of poetry called In the Garden of Dreams. She sent a copy to  Oliver Wendell Holmes, and he wrote her back this letter dated December 29, 1889.