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
By William Makepeace Thackeray (18111863)
G
To a fair mistress and a pleasant home,
Where soft hearts greet us whensoe’er we come!
However rude my verse, or poor my wit,
Or sad or gay my mood,—you welcome it.
My master’s love, grief, laughter, at an end,—
Whene’er I write your name, may I write friend!
Voices familiar once, no more he hears;
Names often writ are blotted out in tears.
Album! my master bids me wish good-by.
He’ll send you to your mistress presently.
Blessing the happy hour when a friend he knew
So gentle, and so generous, and so true.
Stranger! I never writ a flattery,
Nor signed the page that registered a lie.