Poem: “The Comedian” by Edgar A. Guest

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American Literature – American Poetry – Edgar A. Guest – Poems by Edgar A. Guest
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The Comedian

Whatever the task and whatever the risk, wherever the flag’s in air,
The funny man with his sunny ways is sure to be laughing there.
There are men who fret, there are men who dream, men making the best of it,
But whether it’s hunger or death they face,
Or burning thirst in a desert place,
There is always one, by the good Lord’s grace,
Who is making a jest of it.

He travels wherever his brothers go and he leaves his home behind him,
The need for smiles he seems to know; in the ranks of death you’ll find him.
When some are weary and sick and faint, and all with the dust are choking
He dances there with a spirit gay,
And tints with gold what is drab and gray,
And into the gloom of the night and day
He scatters his mirthful joking.

He wins to courage the soul-tried men; he lightens their hours of sorrow;
He turns their thoughts from the grief that is to the joy that may come to-morrow.
He mocks at death and he jests at toil, as one that is never weary;
He japes at danger and discipline,
Or the muddy trench that he’s standing in;
There’s nothing can banish his merry grin,
Or dampen his spirits cheery.

The honors of war to its heroes go; for them are the pomp and glory,
But seldom it is that the types relate a victory’s inside story.
And few shall know when the strife is done and the history’s made hereafter,
How much depended on him who stirred
The souls of men with a cheerful word,
And kept them brave by a jest absurd,
And brightened their days with laughter.

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American Literature – American Poetry – Edgar A. Guest – Poems by Edgar A. Guest

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