AUTOGRAPHIC For an Album
Reading edition
I feel, if aught I ought to rhyme, I ought 'a' thought a longer time, And ought 'a' caught a higher sense, Of autocratic eloquence. I ought 'a' sought each haughty Muse That taught a thought I ought to use, And fought and fraught, and so devised A poem unmonotonized.— But since all this was vain, I thought I ought to simply say,—I ought To thank you, as I ought to do, And ought to bow my best to you; And ought to trust not to intrude A rudely wrought-up gratitude, But ought to smile, and ought to laugh, And ought to write—an autograph.