Page:Poems Kimball.djvu/219

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HOSPITALITY.
to Mrs H. E. H.

SWEET friend, whose hospitality
Pervades your house like summer air,
And at whose board I ever find
A welcome marvellously kind
From all the dear ones gathered there,

How often when I take my place
One thought of swift regret will come,
That to your circle I can bring
In glad return no precious thing
To swell your pleasure's happy sum;

Nothing but simple loving rhymes
For some occasion like to-day,
When any one, however dull,
Some common flowers of thought might cull
And weave them in a birthday lay.

And this is all I bring you now,
A song of little worth, indeed,
Whose end a version poor will prove
Of one true poem that I love—
A poem that I daily read—

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