 | The poetical works of Charles Lamb |  |
170
TO DORA W---,
ON BEING ASKED BY HER FATHER TO WRITE IN HER ALBUM.
An Album is a Banquet: from the store,In his intelligential Orchard growing,
Your Sire might heap your board to overflowing;—
One shaking of the Tree—'twould ask no more
To set a Salad forth, more rich than that
Which Evelyn in his princely cookery fancied:
Or that more rare, by Eve's neat hands enhanced,
Where, a pleased guest, the angelic Virtue sat.
But like the all-grasping Founder of the Feast,
Whom Nathan to the sinning king did tax,
From his less wealthy neighbours he exacts;
Spares his own flocks, and takes the poor man's beast.
Obedient to his bidding, lo, I am,
A zealous, meek, contributory
Lamb.
| The poetical works of Charles Lamb | |