A Toast to the Men

A Toast to the Men

Dedicated to the Women

Original Text
Edgar A. Guest, Home Rhymes From "Breakfast Table Chat" (Detroit: no publisher, 1909), pp. 37-38. Brief PSA 0024155 ROBA
1Here's to the men! Since Adam's time
2    They've always been the same;
3Whenever anything goes wrong,
4    The woman is to blame.
5From early morn to late at night,
6    The men fault-finders are;
7They blame us if they oversleep,
8    Or if they miss a car.
9They blame us if, beneath the bed,
10    Their collar buttons roll;
11They blame us if the fire is out
12    Or if there is no coal.
13They blame us if they cut themselves
14    While shaving, and they swear
15That we're to blame if they decide
16    To go upon a tear.
17Here's to the men, the perfect men!
18    Who never are at fault;
19They blame us if they chance to get
20    The pepper for the salt.
21They blame us if their business fails,
22    Or back a losing horse;
23And when it rains on holidays
24    The fault is ours, of course.
25They blame us when they fall in love,
26    And when they married get;
27Likewise they blame us when they're sick,
28    And when they fall in debt.
29For everything that crisscross goes
30    They say we are to blame;
31But, after all, here's to the men,
32    We love them just the same!

Notes

8] a car: a streetcar, scheduled to pass by stops at given times of the day. Back to Line
10] collar buttons: metallic, and loose like cuff-links. Back to Line
16] on a tear: get drunk, go on a bender. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1909
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Form
couplets