Edgar Albert Guest Poems

When the burden grows heavy, and rough is the way,
When you falter and slip, and it isn't your day,
And your best doesn't measure to what is required,
...

I'd like to think when life is done
That I had filled a needed post.
That here and there I'd paid my fare
With more than idle talk and boast;
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When I'm weary of argument wordy
And tired of continuous debate,
When the speaker like some hurdy gurdy,
Which carries on early and late,
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Wherever you may chance to be — wherever you may roam,
Far away in foreign lands; or just at home sweet home;
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Be a friend. You don't need money;
Just a disposition sunny;
Just the wish to help another
Get along some way or other;
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Get off your downy cots of ease,
There's work that must be done.
Great danger's riding on the seas.
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You have given me riches and ease,
You have given me joys through the years,
I have sat in the shade of your trees,
With the song of your birds in my ears.
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Here's to you, little mother,
With your boy so far away;
May the joy of service smother
All your grief this Christmas day;
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Somebody said that it couldn't be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That 'maybe it couldn't,' but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.
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Courage isn't a brilliant dash,
A daring deed in a moment's flash;
It isn't an instantaneous thing
...