FATE. by Edgar A. Guest

[Bless you, Hi]

Hello!

I wasn’t sure where to post this. Edgar A. Guest was a popular American poet in the early twentieth century, regularly having his works featured in prominent newspapers. He wrote one poem in particular that may interest you, about a marriage that might not have been had it not been for a sneeze. The work is called “FATE.” which was part of a series titled JUST FOLKS, published in 1926.

 

FATE.

by Edgar A. Guest

 

How do things happen? Well, who can explain

The freight that is carried in destiny’s train?

One man turns a corner, perhaps by mistake,

Is felled by a signboard with chances to break,

And when he recovers, for better or worse,

He walks to the altar and marries his nurse.

 

Take Miss Annabelle Brown for curious case,

Her future looked bleak and her past commonplace.

“All the days are the same,” she would frequently sigh,

“Nothing happens to me, nothing will till I die.”

Then one day in a car—ladylike if you please,—

By an atom of dust she was prompted to sneeze.

 

’Twas a cute little “Atchoo!” and soft was the sound,

But the gentleman sitting in front turned around;

Not, of course, to be rude, but just curious to see

Who that delicate feminine sneezer could be;

And Miss Annabelle Brown saw a schoolboy she’d known

In the days of her youth which so swiftly had flown.

 

She recognized him, and he recognized her,

And this partly explains how romances occur,

For they caught up the friendship they fancied was lost

And were married that fall with the coming of frost.

So, but for that sneeze on her way into town,

Mrs. Annabelle Black might today be Miss Brown.