{"id":8016,"date":"2022-03-15T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=8016"},"modified":"2022-03-15T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T05:00:00","slug":"the-nearest-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-nearest-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nearest Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn99021999\/1914-03-15\/ed-1\/seq-16\/\"><em>Omaha Daily Bee, March 15, 1914<\/em><\/a><em>. By John Kendrick Bangs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A man I know, and yet know not at all,<br>Is one who ever stands at beck and call.<br>Responsive always to my slightest whim,<br>No matter what the task I set for him.<br>My friend he would be, yet most truly he<br>Of all my foes is my worst enemy\u2014<br>A riddle past all solving\u2014loving, warm,<br>Yet daily in some way he doeth harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Control him? I have tried with some success,<br>Yet often he eludes me, and distress<br>Incalculable follows in his train,<br>And leaves me face to face with bitter pain.<br>His thoughts I know, and yet within his soul<br>He carries as it were a mystic scroll<br>That, try how hard I may to penetrate<br>Its meaning clear, I never can translate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why this good deed he does, or that of ill,<br>The deeds that dull all hope, or haply thrill<br>My heart and soul, I cannot comprehend\u2014<br>My enemy today; tomorrow friend!<br>With joy and shame, alternately, through life<br>He\u2019s filled my days with happiness and strife;<br>My love and hatred form his worldly pelf,<br>This man I know, yet know him not!\u2014Myself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Omaha Daily Bee, March 15, 1914. By John Kendrick Bangs. A man I know, and yet know not at all,Is one who ever stands at beck and call.Responsive always to my slightest whim,No matter what the task I set for him.My friend he would be, yet most truly heOf all my foes is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[195],"class_list":["post-8016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-omaha-daily-bee","tag-john-kendrick-bangs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8016","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=8016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}