“Seemed like I couldn't stand it any more,
The factory whistles blowin' day by day,
An' men an' children hurryin' by the door,
An' street cars clangin' on their busy way.
The faces of the people seemed to be
Washed pale by tears o' grief an' strife an' care,
Till everywhere I turned to I could see
The same old gloomy pictures of despair.The windows of the shops all looked the same,
Decked out with stuff their owners wished to sell;
When visitors across our doorway came
I could recite the tales they'd have to tell.
All things had lost their old-time power to please;
Dog-tired I was an' irritable, too,
An' so I traded chimney tops for trees,
An' shingled roof for open skies of blue.”

— Edgar Guest

Source: When Day is Done (1921), The Cure for Weariness, stanzas 1 and 2

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Jan. 27, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Seemed like I couldn't stand it any more, The factory whistles blowin' day by day, An' men an' children hurryin' by t…" by Edgar Guest?

Edgar Guest 61

American writer 1881–1959

Related quotes

“I suppose it is out of laziness that the world is the same day after day. Today it seemed to want to change. And then anything, anything could happen.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

“Well it's a gloomy, rainy old day to be here in London, but it could be worse; I could be in Saudi Arabia where men are men, and women are cattle.”

Pat Condell (1949) Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality

"More demands from Islam" (9 October 2007) https://youtube.com/watch/?v=mHh0NdR5Jh0
2007

“It seems to me a painting [she is working on] like the one I gave Manet ['The Harbour at Lorient'] could perhaps sell, and that is all I care about.”

Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) painter from France

note about her first painting she started after the battle in Paris, 1870; in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot with her family and friends', ed. Denis Rouart (transl. Betty W. Hubbard); Camden Press, London, 1986, p. 57
1860 - 1870

“I wouldn't mind seeing China if I could come back the same day.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

“When people not accustomed to Washington came to the office, or when I met them on some special occasion, they often remarked that it seemed to be my busy day, to which my stock reply came to be that all days were busy and there was little difference among them.”

Calvin Coolidge book The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge, Cosmopolitan Book Corporation (1929), p. 200.
1920s

“While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.”

W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

Source: The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), Vacillation http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1751/, IV
Context: My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.