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Edgar Guest

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Poet

The Resume

    (August 20, 1881-August 5, 1959)
    Born in Birmingham,. England, United Kingdom
    Columnist for the Detroit Free Press (1898-1959)
    Best-known poems include ‘Home,’ ‘See It Through’ and ‘It Couldn’t Be Done’
    Named Poet Laureate of Michigan
    Nicknamed ‘The People’s Poet’

Why he might be annoying:

    His poems were mawkishly sentimental.
    He would weep at his own verses during poetry readings.
    His poems were used in commercials for Chrysler and Audi.
    He inspired the anonymous couplet (often misattributed to Dorothy Parker), ‘I’d rather fail my Wasserman test/Than read the poems of Edgar Guest.’ (The Wasserman test was used to diagnose if a person had syphilis.)

Why he might not be annoying:

    He worked his way up from copy boy to reporter to syndicated columnist.
    He wrote an estimated 11,000 poems over his career.
    He was unpretentious, commenting ‘I take simple everyday things that happen to me … and I make simple rhymes out of them.’
    He was the only poet quoted by Edith Bunker on All in the Family. (Specifically, she recited his line, ‘It takes a heap o’ livin’ to make a house a home.’)

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 23 Votes: 52.17% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 29 Votes: 17.24% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 85 Votes: 57.65% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 41 Votes: 51.22% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 25 Votes: 56.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying