Poeticous Logo
it
English Español Français Italiano
Edgar Albert Guest

Edgar Albert Guest

The Bank Clerk

I’D LIKE to be a bank clerk, and sit inside a cage,
I’d like to take and hoard away the toiler’s weekly wage;
I ‘d like to sit behind a drawer with gold and greenbacks lined,
I ’d like to read the writing on the checks rich men have signed,
It must be nice to shut up shop at 3 and cease to fret,
And then I wish that I could have the holidays they get.
 
I’d like to be a bank clerk, with a pen behind my ear,
To go to work at 9 and know that quitting time’s so near:
To occupy a cage in which no office bores can sit,
With nothing else to do but take in cash and care for it.
I ‘d like to be a bank clerk; that I ’m not is my regret;
Just think of all the holidays the weary bank clerks get.
 
I love the name of Lincoln and the name of Washington,
I like to think about the way George made the British run;
I 'd like to take a day off, too, to honor him, I say,
And I would also like to rest on Decoration Day;
I love this land of freedom, and I like to sing her praise,
But I wish I were a bank clerk to enjoy her holidays.

#EnglishWriters

Altre opere di Edgar Albert Guest...
Pa Did It!

The train of cars that Santa brou… While pa was showing how they went… They used to run around a track’at… Would let me take them in my hands… I could ’a’ had some fun with 'em,…
Committee Meetings

For this and that and various thin… It seems that men must get togethe… To purchase cups or diamond rings Or to discuss the price of leather… From nine to ten, or two to three,
The Town of Nothing-To-Do

THEY say somewhere in the distan… Is the town of Nothing-to-Do, Where the sun, they say, shines ev… And the skies are always blue; Where no one tries for a silver pr…
The Scoffer

If I had lived in Franklin’s time… Beholding him out in the rain, a k… And noticing upon its tail the bar… Would, with the scoffers on the st… And with a sneer upon my lips I w…
Fixing the Shame

They put him in jail for the thing… For that was the law they’d made; They turned the key on his youth t… The price of his crime had paid. And the wise judge said as he sent…
 1
Copy Paper

I START the day with paper whi… And put it in my old machine, And wonder whether, as I write The night will find my copy clean. Will this day’s finished task be f…
The Three Me’s

I’d like to steal a day and be All alone with little me, Little me that used to run Everywhere in search of fun; Little me of long ago
The Spendthrift

HE died a poor man, so they say, Few were the dollars stored away By him while he lived, and yet His memory I’ll not forget. A spendthrift! True, but not for…
The Junk Box

My father often used to say: 'My boy don’t throw a thing away: You’ll find a use for it some day.… So in a box he stored up things, Bent nails, old washers, pipes and…
The Dead Return

THE dead return. I know they do; The glad smile may have passed fro… The ringing voice that cheered us… In that remembered long ago Be stilled, and yet in sweeter way…
The Finer Thought

How fine it is at night to say: ‘I have not wronged a soul to-day. I have not by a word or deed, In any breast sowed anger’s seed, Or caused a fellow being pain;
July the Fourth, 1917

Time was the cry went round the wo… America for freedom speaks, A new flag is to-day unfurled, An eagle on the mountain shrieks, A king is failing on his throne,
The Little Chap

DO you know why men dig ditches And why others till the soil? Do you know why men seek riches, And each morn go out to toil? It’s because at home there’s waiti…
The Soldier on Crutches

He came down the stairs on the lau… Where patriots were eating and dri… The tap of his crutch on the marbl… Caught my ear as I sat all alone… I turned—and a soldier my eyes fel…
Fame

FAME is a fickle jade at best, And he who seeks to win her smile Must trudge, disdaining play or re… O’er many a long and weary mile. Nor must he work alone for her,



Alto