Father

Father

Original Text
Edgar A. Guest, Home Rhymes From "Breakfast Table Chat" (Detroit: no publisher, 1909), pp. 50-51. Brief PSA 0024155 ROBA
1My father knows the proper way
2    The nation should be run;
3He tells us children every day
4    Just what should now be done.
6    He has a simple plan;
7But if the furnace needs repairs,
8    We have to hire a man.
9My father, in a day or two
10    Could land big thieves in jail;
11There's nothing that he cannot do,
12    He knows no word like "fail."
13"Our confidence" he would restore,
14    Of that there is no doubt;
15But if there is a chair to mend,
16    We have to send it out.
17All public questions that arise,
18    He settles on the spot;
19He waits not till the tumult dies,
20    But grabs it while it's hot.
21In matters of finance he can
22    Tell Congress what to do;
23But, O, he finds it hard to meet
24    His bills as they fall due.
25It almost makes him sick to read
26    The things law-makers say;
27Why, father's just the man they need,
28    He never goes astray.
29All wars he'd very quickly end,
30    As fast as I can write it;
31But when a neighbor starts a fuss,
32    'Tis mother has to fight it.
33In conversation father can
34    Do many wondrous things;
35He's built upon a wiser plan
36    Than presidents or kings.
37He knows the ins and outs of each
38    And every deep transaction;
39We look to him for theories,
40    But look to ma for action.

Notes

5] the trusts: monopolies set up for the public benefit. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Form