Forced to drop out of high school to help support his family, Edgar A. Guest started his long career at the Detroit Free Press as a copyboy. He eventually wrote a daily column, “Breakfast Table Chat,” that included his own verse. These poems about everyday life were immensely popular throughout the country. A prolific writer of over 11,000 poems, Guest humbly called himself “a newspaper man who wrote verses.”
By Edgar Albert Guest
How much grit do you think you’ve got?
Can you quit a thing that you like a lot?
You may talk of pluck; it’s an easy word,
And where’er you go it is often heard;
But can you tell to a jot or guess
Just...
By Edgar Albert Guest
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.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he...
By Edgar Albert Guest
My father knows the proper way
The nation should be run;
He tells us children every day
Just what should now be done.
He knows the way to fix the trusts,
He has a simple plan;
But if the furnace needs repairs,
We have to hire a...
