Wide Margins

PRINT not my Book of Days, I pray,
On meagre page, in type compact,
Lest the Great Reader’s calm eye stray
Skippingly through from fact to fact;

But let there be a liberal space,
At least ’twixt lines where ill is writ,
That I with tempering hand may trace
A word to dull the edge of it.

And save for me a margin wide
Where I may scribble at my ease
Elucidative note and guide
Of most adroit apologies!