Noisy Place, by Edgar Guest

I have for sometime enjoyed the poetry of Edgar Guest. His focus in simple rhymes on the beauty of everyday life and family is a blessing to me. This poem is a good reminder for me and fits the Children’s Hour theme well.

Noisy Place

It is difficult to read

When for candy children plead,

And I find it quite disturbing

When with shouts there is no curbing

They come bounding in the place

At a mad and merry pace,

Just as if the world and all

Had been made for children small.

It is difficult to write

When with innocent delight

And a joy no frown can smother

Lusty lungs are calling: “Mother!

May we go in swimming now?”

So I sit and mop my brow

And I push the work away

Till there comes a quiet day.

It is difficult to nap

When the screen doors bang and slap

And a most tumultuous riot

Shatters every hope of quiet.

For no youngster ever thinks

Father needs those forty winks,

Or respects the plea we make

To be still for mother’s sake.

But somehow it seems to me

That more difficult ’twould be

Could I sit and read whenever

Came the fancy, knowing never

Child o’ mine would burst the door

To disturb me as of yore.

I should oft’ be longing then

To be bothered once again.