TO A. H. B.
Reading edition
A "COMMENCEMENT" GREETING With Portraits of Eminent Authors
Dear Hallam, with this trifling gift Best wishes now I send thee; Through all thy future life may joy And grace and peace attend thee. May this the bright beginning be Of days love-crowned and royal; May griefs and faults and foes be few, Friends manifold and loyal. May gems from authors such as these Store well thy mental coffer, But for thy heart's enrichment please Accept the love I offer.
1882