Page 30 - Poetry-Books

And just below is written, “These
Many and pleasing Melodies,
Dear Wm. writ in ‘98,
& unto Me did Dedicate.”
This one was read and read again,
And annotated by her pen:
And this fulfilled the Author’s hopes,
Repaid the toil of all his tropes,
And had, at least his span of life,
One constant reader in his wife.

— Frank Dempster Sherman (Century Magazine, 1889)

The Library

Give me the room whose every nook
Is dedicated to a book,
Two windows will suffice for air
And grant the light admission there;
One looking to the south, and one
To speed the red, departing sun.
The eastern wall from frieze to plinth
Shall be the Poet’s labyrinth,
Where one may find the lords of rhyme
From Homer’s down to Dobson’s time;
And at the northern side a space
Shall show an open chimney-place,
Set round with ancient tiles that tell
Some legend old and weave a spell
About the firedog-guarded seat,
Where one may dream and taste the heat:
Above, the mantel should not lack
For curios and bric-a-brac,—

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