Edgar Guest
Edgar Guest
Edgar Albert Guestwas a prolific English-born American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People's Poet...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth20 August 1881
CountryUnited States of America
want fit knows
I have to live with myself and so, I want to be fit for myself to know.
struggle want able
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to look at myself and know That I'm bluster and buff and empty show.
wish earth want
The things are mighty few on earth that wishes can attain. Whate'er we want of any worth, we've got to work to gain.
action best everybody good men preachers
The best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,/ For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
although bear beautiful belief bitter cannot cease dead death divinely fearful gained god good grief heaven joys leave loved meant morning none religion seek seem seemed soon swept trust wicked wise wonder
Often we wonder in our grief what is gained by our belief? Although night, and morning we pray, still our joys are swept away. And loved ones we would keep, with the dead are called to sleep. None is wise enough to say why the wicked seem to stay, and the beautiful and good leave before we think they should. But if death seemed always just, soon in God wed cease to trust. If for evil, death were meant as a bitter punishment; should the wicked only die, then heaven we seek on high. Having none we long to see would a fearful religion be. It is only by belief we are comforted in grief; it is only by our trust that the God we love is just. That we bear divinely planned. Griefs we cannot understand.
begun coat somebody took
Somebody scoffed, "Oh, you'll never to that --/ At least no one ever has done it";/ But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,/ And the first thing we knew, he'd begun it.
buff empty fame struggle
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf / I want to be able to like myself. / I don't want to look at myself and know / That I'm bluster and buff and empty show.
bit doubting lift tackled
With a lift of his chin, and a bit of a grin/ Without any doubting or "quit it,"/ He started to sing, as he tackled the thing/ That couldn't be done, and he did it.
joy sorrow despair
Tomorrow--there's no day so fair, It knows no sorrow; A day that banishes despair, Joy rules tomorrow.
feet trying may
When you're up against a trouble, meet it squarely, face to face. Lift your chin and set your shoulders, plant your feet and take a brace. When it's vain to try to dodge it, do the best that you can do. You may fail, but you may conquer. See it through!
lying dust matter
No one is beat till he quits, no one is through till he stops. No matter how hard failure hits, no matter how often he drops, a fellow's not down till he lies in the dust and refuses to rise.
education heart giving
There is an education of the mind Which all require and parents only start. But there is training of a nobler kind And that's the education of the heart. Lessons that are most difficult to give Are Faith and Courage and the way to live.
believe thinking fishing
Along a stream that raced and ran Through tangled trees and over stones, That long had heard the pipes o' Pan And shared the joys that nature owns, I met a fellow fisherman, Who greeted me in cheerful tones. . . . . Foes think the bad in him they've guessed And prate about the wrong they scan; Friends that have seen him at his best Believe they know his every plan; I know him better than the rest, I know him as a fisherman.
dream lying men
There's nothing that builds up a toil-weary soul Like a day on a stream, Back on the banks of the old fishing hole Where a fellow can dream. There's nothing so good for a man as to flee From the city and lie Full length in the shade of a whispering tree And gaze at the sky. . . . . It is good for the world that men hunger to go To the banks of a stream, And weary of sham and of pomp and of show They have somewhere to dream. For this life would be dreary and sordid and base Did they not now and then Seek refreshment and calm in God's wide, open space And come back to be men.