Saturday Poetry

Here we have a poem chosen not for its great art -- though it is more than acceptable -- but for its historical meaning.  For here is a poem by a plumbing contractor named Reuben Anderson who gave it to Glen Edgerton, the supervisor of the White House restoration during the Truman Administration.  Harry Truman liked it so much he read it aloud:

 

Every man's a would-be sportsman, in the dreams of his intent,

A potential ou-of-doors man when his thoughts are pleasure-bent.

But he mostly puts the idea off, for the things that must be done,

And doesn't get his outing till his outing days are gone.

So in hurry, scurry, worry, work, his living days are spent,

And he does his final camping in a low green tent.   

 

-- As quoted by David McCullough in Truman, p. 859.