Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
III. To James Lorimer Graham, Jr.Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903)
(With a volume of Shakespeare’s Sonnets)
W
That princely heart, so over kind to me,
Who, richly guerdoned both of earth and heaven,
Holds for his friends his heritage in fee?
No costly trinket of the golden ore,
Nor precious jewel of the distant Ind:
Ay me! these are not hoarded in my store,
Who have no coffers but my grateful mind.
What gift then,—nothing? Stay, this book of song
May show my poverty and thy desert,
Steeped as it is in love, and love’s sweet wrong,
Red with the blood that ran through Shakespeare’s heart.
Read it once more, and, fancy soaring free,
Think, if thou canst, that I am singing thee!