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Edgar Albert Guest

Edgar Albert Guest

To an Old Friend

When we have lived our little lives and wandered all their byways through,
When we’ve seen all that we shall see and finished all that we must do,
When we shall take one backward look off yonder where our journey ends,
I pray that you shall be as glad as I shall be that we were friends.
 
Time was we started out to find the treasures and the joys of life;
We sought them in the land of gold through many days of bitter strife.
When we were young we yearned for fame; in search of joy we went afar,
Only to learn how very cold and distant all the strangers are.
 
When we have met all we shall meet and know what destiny has planned,
I shall rejoice in that last hour that I have known your friendly hand;
I shall go singing down the way off yonder as my sun descends
As one who’s had a happy life, made glorious by the best of friends.

#EnglishWriters

Other works by Edgar Albert Guest...
You and Your Body

WHOM is your boy going to for ad… Tough Johnny Jones at the end of… Rough Billy Green or untaught Ji… Who is now guiding his innocent fe… Who takes him walking or swimming…
The Handy Man

The handy man about the house Is old and bent and gray; Each morning in the yard he toils, Where all the children play; Some new task every day he finds,
The Responsibility of Fatherhood

BEFORE you came, my little lad, I used to think that I was good, Some vicious habits, too, I had, But wouldn’t change them if I cou… I held my head up high and said:
Tell Him Why

When your boy wants to do what he… Some foolish or dangerous thing. Or something you wish that he woul… A deed that disaster may bring, That he must not you hasten to tel…
The Common Touch

I would not be too wise’so very wi… That I must sneer at simple songs… And let the glare of wisdom blind… To humble people and their humble… I would not care to climb so high…
 1
The Boy’s Adventure

‘Dear Father,’ he wrote me from S… Where he’s waiting with Pershing… ‘There’s little the censor permits… Save the fact that I’m here and a… The French people cheered as we m…
The Hunter

Cheek that is tanned to the wind o… Body that jests at the bite of the… Limbs that are eager and strong to… Into the wilds and the ways of the… Red blood that pulses and throbs i…
A Battle Prayer

God of battles, be with us now: Guard our sons from the lead of sh… Watch our sons when the cannons fl… Let them not to a tyrant bow. God of battles, to Thee we pray:
The Sulkers

The world’s too busy now to pause To listen to a whiner’s cause; It has no time to stop and pet The sulker in a peevish fret, Who wails he’ll neither work nor p…
The Right Family

With time our notions allus change… An’ years make old idees seem stra… Take Mary there– time was when sh… Thought one child made a family, An’ when our eldest, Jim, was bor…
The New Days

The old days, the old days, how of… The days of hope at dewy morn, the… The days when every mead was fair,… And every maiden wore a smile, and… The days when dreams were golden a…
Mother’s Job

I’m just the man to make things ri… To mend a sleigh or make a kite, Or wrestle on the floor and play Those rough and tumble games, but… Just let him get an ache or pain,
The Flag on the Farm

We’ve raised a flagpole on the far… And flung Old Glory to the sky, And it’s another touch of charm That seems to cheer the passer-by, But more than that, no matter wher…
The Test

You can brag about the famous men… You may boast about the great men… Parsons, eloquent and wise; stars… Millionaires and navy admirals, an… Fame and power and wealth and glor…
Vacation Time

Vacation time! How glad it seemed When as a boy I sat and dreamed Above my school books, of the fun That I should claim when toil was… And, Oh, how oft my youthful eye



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