Edgar Albert Guest Poems

SINCE I have done my best, I do
Not fear the outcome; here I stand
Prepared for judgment when men view
The labor of my heart and hand.
...

'Oh, if only I had known!'
Said the keeper of the inn.
'But no hint to me was shown,
And I didn't let them in.
...

If this were all of life we'll know,
If this brief space of breath
Were all there is to human toil,
...

The miser thinks he's living when he's hoarding up his gold;
The soldier calls it living when he's doing something bold;
The sailor thinks it living to be tossed upon the sea,
...

NOT over there do I await
Reward for patience here below,
Not over there at Heaven's gate
Is all the joy that I shall know;
Not for the joys to be am I
...

The father toils at his work all day,
And he hums this song as he plods away:
'Heigho! for the mother and babe of three
Who watch at the window each night for me.
...

SO YOU 'RE sobbin' in the night time, an' you 're sighin' through the day,
An' your heart is ever callin' for the loved one gone away;
An' you're lonely, oh, so lonely! an' there's nothin' friends can do,
That will start the old light shinin' in those tender eyes of blue.
...

Figure it out for yourself, my lad,
You're all that the greatest of men have had,
Two arms, two hands, two legs, two eyes,
...

Troubles? Sure I've lots of them,
Got 'em heaped up by the score,
Got 'em baled and bundled up,
Got 'em hid behind the door.
...

She mothered five!
Night after night she watched a little bed,
Night after night she cooled a fevered head,
Day after day she guarded little feet,
...