C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

From ‘The Pen and the Album’

GO back, my pretty little gilded tome,

To a fair mistress and a pleasant home,

Where soft hearts greet us whensoe’er we come!

Dear, friendly eyes, with constant kindness lit,

However rude my verse, or poor my wit,

Or sad or gay my mood,—you welcome it.

Kind lady! till my last of lines is penned,

My master’s love, grief, laughter, at an end,—

Whene’er I write your name, may I write friend!

Not all are so that were so in past years:

Voices familiar once, no more he hears;

Names often writ are blotted out in tears.

So be it: joys will end and tears will dry.—

Album! my master bids me wish good-by.

He’ll send you to your mistress presently.

And thus with thankful heart he closes you;

Blessing the happy hour when a friend he knew

So gentle, and so generous, and so true.

Nor pass the words as idle phrases by;

Stranger! I never writ a flattery,

Nor signed the page that registered a lie.