Edgar Albert Guest Poems

A LITTLE more of loving, a little less of pain,
A little more of sunshine, a little less of rain;
A little more of friendship, a little less of strife—
These are what we 're wanting to make the perfect life.
...

The little house is not too small
To shelter friends who come to call.
Though low the roof and small its space
...

There's a little chap at our house that is being mighty good-
Keeps the front lawn looking tidy in the way we've said he should;
Doesn't leave his little wagon, when he's finished with his play,
On the sidewalk as he used to; now he puts it right away.
...

DID you ever meet a brother as you hurried on your way
And invite him up to dinner, and his wife;
Did you ever keep him standing until he had named the day
When you'd meet to talk about your early life?
...

We cannot count our friends, nor say
How many praise us day by day.
Each one of us has friends that he
Has yet to meet and really know,
...

Who shall sit at the table, then, when the terms
of peace are made-
The wisest men of the troubled lands in their
silver and gold brocade?
...

Mothers and wives, 'tis the call to arms
That the bugler yonder prepares to sound;
We stand on the brink of war's alarms
And your men may lie on a blood-stained
ground.
...

You needn't be rich to be happy,
You needn't be famous to smile;
There are joys for the poorest of toilers
If only he'll think them worth while.
...

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
...

I may never be a hero, I am past the limit now,
There are pencil marks of silver Time has left upon my brow;
I shall win no service medals, I shall hear no cannons' roar,
I shall never fight a battle higher up than eagles soar,
...