[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

To Jessica, Gone Back To The City

Ellis Parker Butler

Sence fair Jessica hez left us
Seems ez ef she hed bereft us,
When she went, o’ half o’ livin’;
Fer we never knowed she’d driven
Into us so much content,
Till fair Jessica hed went.
  (Knowed a feller once thet cried
  When his yaller dog hed died.)

We hain’t near ez bright an’ chirky,
An’ the sun shines blue an’ murky,
Kind o’ sadly an’ dishearted,
Like ets sperret bed departed;
Just ez ef ets joy bed ceased
Sence fair Jessica ’s gone East.
  (Not but what ets always sober
  Sort o’ weather in October.)

Then the posies, too, seems human,
An’ hez all quit o’ their bloomin’;
An’ the trees they show a pallor
An’ hey turned a heart-sick yaller,
Sayin’, “No use livin’ on
Ef fair Jessica hez gone.”
  (Folks thet knows sez this ez all
  Very common in the fall.)

Truth ez, I’m a-feelin’ sadly;
Things ez goin’ kind o’ badly
Round my heart an’ other vitals
(Brings on poetry recitals
O’ my woes ‘most ev’ry day)
Sence fair Jessica’s away.
  (Kind o’ think thet I will haf ter
  Smoke a leetle less hereafter.)

But, with fun aside, you know,
We’re blamed sorry she must go;
An’ we hope she’ll think, maybe,
‘Z well o’ us ez we o’ she.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Century Magazine | 1897
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.