Opusculum: For a Very Small Album

Fair Cousin, thy page is small to encage the thoughts which engage the mind of a sage, such as I am;

’Twere in teaspoon to take the whole Genevese lake, or a lap-dog to make the white Elephant sac- -red in Siam.

Yet inadequate though to the terms strange and so- -lemn that figure in po- -lysyllabical row in a treatise;

Still, true words and plain, of the heart, not the brain, in affectionate strain, this book to contain very meet is.

So I promise to be a good Cousin to thee, and to keep safe the se- -cret I heard, although e- -v’ry one know it;

With a lyrical air my kind thoughts I would dare, and offer whate’er beseems the news, were I a poet.