 | The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley |  |
952
AUTOGRAPHIC
For an Album
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.
| The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley | |