The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet

“Gifts,” Essays: Second Series, No. 5 (1844).
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