Poetry: Edgar A. Guest

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 11:57 AM

Once upon a time I was a young long-haired English Major and I cared about ee cummings and TS Elliott and John Donne and disdained the lowly sentimentalist stuff of Edgar Guest. He was mentioned among my professors and peers only in the context of a perfect example of lame, sentimentalist doggerel. But I believe that in aging we become more attracted to the warmth of the low-burning bed of autumn embers than the excitement of the summer bonfire, an analogy that Mr Guest might have found enticing.
Anyhow, I have enjoyed reading the pieces by him in this thread, and regret somewhat my youthful callousness.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 12:04 PM

Just a further note on sentimental poetry. We revolutionaries of 68 were selective in our disdain. I can well remember that the following poem was quite popular among the lit students at U of L. Perhaps because it was Yeats, we allowed ourselves to admire it.

WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep   
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,   
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look   
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;   

How many loved your moments of glad grace,         
And loved your beauty with love false or true;   
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,   
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.   

And bending down beside the glowing bars,   
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled   
And paced upon the mountains overhead,   
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Artful Codger
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 04:35 PM

Don't forget "Desiderata": you couldn't turn round without finding it posted up somewhere. Now there's a poem to trigger a gurp (brief intestinal backwash). And even amidst all the psychodelia, acid rock and free love there were silly love songs more candy-coated than jawbreakers. Same as it ever was.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 10:02 PM

There are some 1017 poems by Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) posted on the Oldpoetry Website: Click here for website

Feel free to sift through them all!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: GUEST,me
Date: 14 Dec 10 - 08:47 PM

what is the rhyme scheme for the poem it couldnt be done by edgar guest???

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Barbara
Date: 15 Dec 10 - 01:17 AM

Housecleaning this week, I came across an eight volume bound set of E. A. Guest. No idea how it came to be mine. Parents' stuff, or grandparents maybe? I grew up in Detroit so that may be why. Any of you brave souls out there want it?
PM me. If by any chance it actually proves popular, I'll put it in the Mudcat auction -- if we still have one.
Blessings,
Barbar

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: GUEST,Edgar's brother
Date: 15 Dec 10 - 08:22 AM

Somebody told us "Yes, we can!
For ev'ry kid a candy!"
When failing, manya congressman
to take the blame comes handy.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Dec 10 - 09:05 PM

Lonesome EJ: Being unfamiliar with the sentiment (love), I didn't recognize the poem to be sentimental. I think it's beautiful, tho, especially the last line.

*

Guest,me: ABABCDCD?

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: clueless don
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 10:30 AM

I have a definite memory of a poem that appeared in Mad Magazine (almost certainly in the 1960s). It was either a parody of, or a tribute to, the Edgar Guest poem "It Couldn't be Done". All I remember (and even that memory is shaky) is that it ended:

I started to sing
as I tackled the thing
that couldn't be done.
AND I DONE IT!

They went on to say something along the lines of "So, what did you think? That we would go for the obvious gag line where the guy wouldn't be able to do it?"

Anyone else remember anything about it?

Don

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: olddude
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 11:13 AM

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're truding seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit --
Rest if you must, but don't you quit!

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a person turns about
When they might have won had they stuck it out,
Don't give up though the pace seems slow --
You may succeed with another blow,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victors cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown!

Success is failure turned inside out!
So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit!
Its when things seem worst that you mustn't quit!

written by
Edgar A. Guest
(1881-1959)

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Nov 11 - 11:14 AM

Here's an update of the link to the Allpoetry site that has over a 1000 poems posted for Mr. Guest: Click here for website!

Once you are there, do a search for "Guest."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Barbara
Date: 22 Jan 12 - 02:34 PM

Here's a bit of satire/commentary on Guest's style by, I believe, EB and/or Katherine White.

Lines to a World-Famous Poet Who Failed To Complete a World-Famous Poem; or, Come Clean, Mr. Guest!

Oft when I'm sitting without anything to read waiting for a train in a
depot,
I torment myself with the poet's dictum that to make a house a home,
livin' is what it takes a heap o'.
Now, I myself should very much enjoy makin' my house a home, but
my brain keeps on a-goin' clickety-click, clickety-click, clickety-click,
If Peter Piper picked a peck o' heap o' livin', what kind of a peck o' heap
o' livin' would Peter Piper pick?
Certainly a person doesn't need the brains of a Lincoln
To know that there are many kinds o' livin', just as there many kinds o'
dancin' or huntin' or fishin' or eatin' or drinkin'.
A philosophical poet should be specific
As well as prolific,
And I trust I am not being offensive
If I suggest that he should also be comprehensive.
You may if you like verify my next statement by sending a stamped, self-
addressed envelope to either Dean Inge or Dean Gauss,
But meanwhile I ask you to believe that it takes a heap of other things
besides a heap o' livin' to make a home out of a house.
To begin with, it takes a heap o' payin',
And you don't pay just the oncet, but agayin and agayin and agayin.
Buyin' a stock is called speculatin' and buyin' a house is called investin',
But the value of the stock or of the house fluctuates up and down,
generally down, just as an irresponsible Destiny may destine.
Something else that your house takes a heap o', whether the builder came
from Sicily or Erin,
Is repairin',
In addition to which, gentle reader, I am sorry to say you are little more
than an imbecile or a cretin
If you think it doesn't take a heap o' heatin',
And unless you're spiritually allied to the little Dutch boy who went
around inspectin' dikes lookin' for leaks to put his thumb in,
It takes a heap o' plumbin',
And if it's a house that you're hopin' to spend not just today but
tomorrow in,
It takes a heap o' borrowin'
In a word, Macushla,
There's a scad o' things that to make a house a home it takes not only a
heap, or a peck, but at least a bushela.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 12:37 AM

Hi, Barbara -

I think I've seen that before. I googled it today, and sources attribute it to Ogden Nash.
Example here (click)

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: meself
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 11:01 AM

You may have seen some of it before - fifty posts or so up the thread ....

-------------

As for Dorothy Parker, she came up with some great quips and one-liners - although, contrary to popular belief, not all of them were great - and was a top-notch writer of short stories - but her poetry? From what I've seen of it, it doesn't have a whole lot on that of Guest.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Jan 12 - 06:22 PM

youself: Right. %^)

-----

Dorothy Parker is said to have written in the guest book of Hearst's castle at San Simeon:

Upon my honor,
I saw a Madonna
Standing in a niche
Above the door
Of the private whore
Of the world's worst son of a bitch.

I also rather like

The days will rally, wreathing
Their crazy tarantelle;
And you must go on breathing,
But I'll be safe in hell....

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 03:51 PM

I have since learned that the story about Hearst's castle has been told about several other people & is almost certainly apocryphal.

Subject: RE: Poetry: Edgar A. Guest
From: Cool Beans
Date: 11 Nov 15 - 05:16 PM

Edgar Guest's granddaughter (Bud's daughter) is a friend of mine here in Detroit. I've never once heard her say anything about her famous grandfather.