It's less than a week before the 4th of July - and I felt moved to post one poem that is appropriate. This poem is longer than most of Edgar's and has a very involved poetic line spacing, which I compromised for simplicity (my apologies to Edgar).

This poem will be more meaningful to those families that actually have soldiers currently overseas in today's conflicts.

Here is "The Things That Make A Soldier Great"


The Things That Make a Soldier Great Edgar A. Guest

The things that make a soldier great
and send him to die,
To face the flaming cannon’s mouth
nor ever question why,
Are lilacs by a little porch,
the row of tulips red,
The peonies and pansies, too,
the old petunia bed,
The grass plot where the children play,
the roses on the wall:
‘Tis these that make a soldier great.
He’s fighting for them all.

Tis’ not the pomp and pride of kings
that make a soldier brave;
‘Tis not allegiance to the flag
that over him may wave;
For soldiers never fight so well
on land or on the foam
As when behind the cause they see
the little place called home.
Endanger but that humble street
whereon his children run,
You make a soldier of the man
who never bore a gun.


What is it through the battle smoke
the valiant soldier sees?
The little garden far away,
the budding apple trees,
The little patch of ground back there,
the children at their play,
Perhaps a tiny mound behind
the simple church of gray.
The golden thread of courage
isn’t linked to castle dome
But to the spot, where’er it be –
the humblest spot called home.

And now the lilacs bud again
and all is lovely there
And homesick soldier far away
know spring is in the air;
The tulips come to bloom again,
the grass once more is green,
And every man can see the spot
where all his joys have been.
He sees his children smile at him,
he hears the bugle call,
And only death can stop him now –
he’s fighting for them all.


I'd like to include here, Wikipedia's introductory piece on Edgar. I promised that I'd include information about Edgar as I came across it. Here it is.....

Edgar Guest

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edgar Albert Guest
Born -- August 20, 1881, Birmingham England –
Died -- August 5, 1959, Detroit, Michigan)
(aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th Century and became known as the People’s Poet.

In 1891, Guest came with his family to the United States from England. After he began at the Detroit Free Press as a copy boy and then a reporter, his first poem appeared December 11, 1898. He became a naturalized citizen in 1902. For 40 years, Guest was widely read throughout North America, and his sentimental, optimistic poems were in the same vein as the light verse of Nick Kenny, who wrote syndicated columns during the same decades.

From his first published work in the Detroit Free Press until his death, in 1959, Guest penned some 11,000 poems which were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in more than 20 books, including A Heap o’ Livin’ (1916) and Just Folks (1917). Guest was made Poet Laureate of Michigan, the only poet to have been awarded the title.

Michael: I finally found your post. Thanks. You are the first (and only) person to respond. Now I know that it can be done. Thanks.