| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. To James Lorimer Graham, Jr. | | By Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903) |
| | (With a volume of Shakespeare’s Sonnets)
WHAT can I give him, who so much hath given,— | |
| 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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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! | | | | |
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