Edgar Albert Guest
The family of Edgar Albert Guest settled in Detroit, Michigan, in 1891. When his father lost his job in 1893, eleven-year-old Edgar between working odd jobs after school. In 1895, the Detroit Free Press hired him as a copy boy, and he worked for the newspaper for almost sixty-five years. Death of the father compelled the seventeen-year-old poet to drop out high school and to work full time at the newspaper. From copy boy, he worked his way to a job in the news department. His first poem appeared on 11 December 1898. His weekly column, "Chaff," first appeared in 1904; his topical verses eventually became the daily "Breakfast Table Chat," which was syndicated to over three-hundred newspapers throughout the United States.
Guest married Nellie Crossman in 1906. The couple had three children. His brother Harry printed his first two books, Home Rhymes and Just Glad Things, in small editions. His verse quickly found an audience and the Chicago firm of Reilly and Britton began to publish his books at a rate of nearly one per year. His collections include Just Folks (1917), Over Here (1918), When Day Is Done (1921), The Passing Throng (1923), Harbor Lights of Home (1928), and Today and Tomorrow (1942).
From 1931 to 1942, Guest broadcast a weekly program on NBC radio. In 1951, "A Guest in Your Home" appeared on NBC TV. He published more than twenty volumes of poetry and was thought to have written over 11,000 poems. Guest has been called "the poet of the people." Most often, his poems were fourteen lines long and presented a deeply sentimental view of everyday life. He considered himself "a newspaper man who wrote verses." Of his poem he said, "I take simple everyday things that happen to me and I figure it happens to a lot of other people and I make simple rhymes out of them." His Collected Verse appeared in 1934 and went into at least eleven editions.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
“It matters not what goal you seek Its secret here reposesYou've got to dig from week to week To get Results or Roses.”
“See It ThroughWhen 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!Black may be the clouds about youAnd your future may seem grim,But don’t let your nerve desert you;Keep yourself in fighting trim.If the worst is bound to happen,Spite of all that you can do,Running from it will not save you,See it through!Even hope may seem but futile,When with troubles you’re beset,But remember you are facingJust what other men have met.You may fail, but fall still fighting;Don’t give up, whate’er you do;Eyes front, head high to the finish.See it through!”
“Father! My father knows the proper way The nation should be run;He tells us children every dayJust what should now be done.He knows the way to fix the trusts,He has a simple plan;But if the furnace needs repairs,We have to hire a man.My father, in a day or twoCould land big thieves in jail;There's nothing that he cannot do,He knows no word like "fail.""Our confidence" he would restore,Of that there is no doubt;But if there is a chair to mend,We have to send it out.All public questions that arise,He settles on the spot;He waits not till the tumult dies,But grabs it while it's hot.In matters of finance he canTell Congress what to do;But, O, he finds it hard to meetHis bills as they fall due.It almost makes him sick to readThe things law-makers say;Why, father's just the man they need,He never goes astray.All wars he'd very quickly end,As fast as I can write it;But when a neighbor starts a fuss,'Tis mother has to fight it.In conversation father canDo many wondrous things;He's built upon a wiser planThan presidents or kings.He knows the ins and outs of eachAnd every deep transaction;We look to him for theories,But look to ma for action”