title: Letter sent to master Timmy Dwight
author: Henry Livingston Jr.
date: 1785
source: Henry Livingston's manuscript poetry book (Thomas Collection; scans and transcription on henrylivingston.com), p. 28 ("Letter sent to master Timmy Dwight, 7 ys old, Dec. 7. 1785"); also printed in Country Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser (Poughkeepsie Journal), 14 Feb 1787, signed R, as "An Epistle to a young Friend just in Breeches" (Tommy/Jack variant). URL: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/timmy.htm (fetched via https://web.archive.org/web/20250522013456/https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/timmy.htm)
form: trochaic tetrameter
lines: 32
attribution: certain
notes: Comic/light verse letter to the 7-year-old son of Rev. Timothy Dwight (later Yale president), a cousin of his wife. MS version kept; the 1787 printed version (signed R, names changed to Tommy and Jack) is on the same site page. Site heading/headnote: Letter sent to master Timmy Dwight | 7 ys old Dec. 7. 1785 MS scan: https://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/doublepages/doublepage28-29.htm

Master Timmy brisk and airy
Blythe as Oberon the fairy
On thy head thy cousin wishes
Thousand and ten thousand blisses.

Never may thy wicket ball
In a well or puddle fall;
Or thy wild ambitious kite
O'er the Elm's thick foliage light.

When on bended knee thou sittest
And the mark in fancy hittest
May thy marble truly trace
Where thy wishes mark'd the place.

If at hide and seek you play,
All involved in the hay
Titt'ring hear the joyful sound
"Timmy never can be found."

If you hop or if you run
Or whatever is the fun,
Vic'try with her sounding pinion
Hover o'er her little minion.

But when hunger calls the boys
From their helter skelter joys:
Bread and cheese in order standing
For their most rapacious handling
Timmy may thy luncheon be
More than Ben's as five to three.

But if hasty pudding's dish
Meet thy vast capacious wish -
Or lob-lollys charming jelly
Court thy cormorantal belly
Mortal foe to megre fast
Be thy spoonful first & last.