I read a sentence in a chapter named "The Ghat of the only World" which was:

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> No one had a greater influence on Shahid's poetry than James Merill; indeed, in the poem in which he most explicitly prefigured his own death, he **awarded the envoy** to Merill: Shahid, hush, this is me, James, The loved ones always leaves.
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What is the meaning of "awarded the envoy" in the sentence?