'O MEN of dark and dismal fate,' <br />A prey to typographic terrors, <br />O you who labor long and late, <br />Correcting other people's errors -- <br />Think not I do not realize <br />How much I owe your Argus-eyes. <br /> <br />More times than one you've fixed for me <br />Some flaw in my imperfect 'copy' <br />Or pointed out indulgently <br />A line or two distinctly sloppy, <br />Or marked (how oft I'd hate to say) <br />An accent in the word 'café.' <br /> <br />Although at times I may appear <br />A trifle querulous and hateful, <br />I hope in this to make it clear <br />I am, and always have been, grateful. <br />I only ask, O Argus-eyes, <br />Don't decorate that last 'revise'! <br /> <br />How many are the breaks you mend! <br />How frequently are you of service! <br />And few who read this comprehend <br />How tense your work, how close and <br />nervous. <br />I understand and sympathize -- <br />Yet beg, keep off that last 'revise!' <br /> <br />Because, to your judicious sight, <br />A sentence may be in confusion, <br />Don't feel that you must make it right <br />Oh leap not to that vain conclusion! <br />Therein resides, as like as not, <br />A joke -- a feeble joke, God wot -- <br /> <br />But still a joke, whose life depends <br />Perchance upon a single letter; <br />And though the line your eye offends, <br />Seek not, I beg, to make it better. <br />When I have left the office roof <br />Oh spare, oh spare that final proof! <br /> <br />In closing I would voice to you <br />My high esteem of your vocation, <br />And incidentally renew <br />My everlasting obligation <br />For marking (every other day) <br />That accent in the word 'café.'<br /><br />Bert Leston Taylor<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-proof-room/
