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