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EPISTLE FROM ONE ABSENT EDITOR TO ANOTHER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Subscribers to ye! J.T.B.
Last Line: Meet nae worse person.
Subject(s): Absence; Separation; Isolation


SUBSCRIBERS to ye! J. T. B.
Where'er ye flit, wherever ye flee --
And though ye'll na remember me
In your braw lodgin,
I trust ye'll ha'e the grace to see
Friends wi'out dodgin.
O gin I were in stage or boat,
Wi' stuffed valise and dapper coat,
How blithely wad I ride or float
On land an' water;
But here I am, na worth a groat--
'T is nae great matter.
I hope, dear sir, it winna vex ye
To hear I borrow the Galaxy,
Wherein ye rave at sic as tax ye
Wi' a that loss --
But dinna let thae things perplex ye,
And be na cross.
I ken ye're crouse, and gi'e sma' glint
At rhyme, when there's nae meaning in 't,
And sae, my verse I weel may stint
For a' you read on 't;
And my puir muse begins to hint
There's little need on 't.
I only meant to let ye ken
That I, like ither absent men,
Have not been busy at my pen
In Hartford City,
But only scribbled now and then --
"The mair's the pity."
I greet thee frae the banks and braes
That saw me in my childish days,
Where neither sylphs nor pranking fays
Buttoned my jacket;
The nearest I saw, in my strays,
Was auld Till Becket,
May you, by Tiber's favored burn,
Or where Potomac sees the urn
That patriot-poets stop and turn
To make a verse on,
Or 'mid the rigs o' Southern corn,
Meet nae worse person.





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