Raisin Pie — Edgar Guest’s Birthday

Edgar Guest¹ (1881 – 1959)

(Some people² consider raisin pie to be the high water mark in the American culinary arts. There is tasty recipe for old fashioned Raisin Pie on this blOg.)

Raisin Pie by Edgar Guest

THERE’S a heap of pent-up goodness in the yellow bantam corn,
And I sort o’ like to linger round a berry patch at morn;
Oh, the Lord has set our table with a stock o’ things to eat
An’ there’s just enough o’ bitter in the blend to cut the sweet,
But I run the whole list over, an’ it seems somehow that I
Find the keenest sort o’ pleasure in a chunk o’ raisin pie.

There are pies that start the water circulatin’ in the mouth;
There are pies that wear the flavor of the warm an’ sunny south;
Some with oriental spices spur the drowsy appetite
An’ just fill a fellow’s being with a thrill o’ real delight;
But for downright solid goodness that comes drippin’ from the sky
There is nothing quite the equal of a chunk o’ raisin pie.

I’m admittin’ tastes are diff’runt, I’m not settin’ up myself
As the judge an’ final critic of the good things on the shelf.
I’m sort o’ payin’ tribute to a simple joy on earth,
Sort o’ feebly testifyin’ to its lasting charm an’ worth,
An’ I’ll hold to this conclusion till it comes my time to die,
That there’s no dessert that’s finer than a chunk o’ raisin pie.

Edgar Guest was born on August 20, 1881, in Birmingham, England. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1891. Edgar began working, in 1895, as a copy boy for the Detroit Free Press. He worked there for almost sixty-five years.

Guest broadcast a weekly program on NBC radio from 1931 to 1942. In 1951, he began “A Guest in Your Home” on NBC TV. Guest published more than twenty volumes of poetry. It is estimated that he wrote over 11,000 poems. Guest has been called “the poet of the people.” His poems usually portrayed a sentimental view of everyday life. He considered himself “a newspaper man who wrote verses.” Edgar Guest died on August 5, 1959.

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