{"id":471,"date":"2020-09-16T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poetry.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=471"},"modified":"2020-09-16T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T05:00:00","slug":"the-daily-grind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-daily-grind\/","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Grind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><em>From the <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn92053934\/1912-09-16\/ed-1\/seq-4\/\">Rock Island Argus, September 16, 1912<\/a>.\nBy Duncan M. Smith.<\/em>\n \n\n Writing pieces for the paper,\n Mostly foolishness and vapor;\n Sometimes reason may slip in,\n Nor is that a deadly sin,\n But it is a sad mistake\n That a writer should not make,\n Lest the reader go to sleep\n Or declare it is too deep\n And the paper fling aside,\n Going forth to take a ride.\n \n Writing for the public print,\n Gossip, story, beauty hint\u2014\n Anything to fill the space\n That a streak of blues will chase;\n Anything that\u2019s light and not\n Clogged with too involved a plot;\n Anything that\u2019s not designed\n To make labor for the mind\n Or to air high sounding views,\n Lest the reader take a snooze.\n \n Writing for the public mart,\n For the eye and for the heart,\n Something simple, straight and plain\n That will rest the reader\u2019s brain\n And will put him in the mood\n For the predigested food\n That adorns the printed page\n In this restless, rushing age;\n That will feed him something light\n Ere he goes to sleep at night.\n \n For we do not read to learn\u2014\n We have knowledge, yes, to burn\u2014\n But we read to be amused\n And to hear our foes abused.\n There is work enough, indeed,\n Where we toil at breakneck speed.\n So when we sit down at night\n With a paper and a light\n Nothing we are after then\n That will make us work again.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Writing pieces for the paper,<br \/>\n Mostly foolishness and vapor;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[96],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-rock-island-argus","tag-duncan-m-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}