{"id":8265,"date":"2022-06-04T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=8265"},"modified":"2022-06-04T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T05:00:00","slug":"the-sea-sweepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-sea-sweepers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sea Sweepers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From the <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn83045462\/1914-06-04\/ed-1\/seq-6\/\">Evening Star, June 4, 1914<\/a>. By Philander Johnson.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>There was an old lady who swept back the sea<br\/>And she was as busy as busy could be.<br\/>We laughed to observe her industrious style,<br\/>But she kept at her task with a song and a smile.<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s better,\u201d said she,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cTo work, you\u2019ll agree,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And it pleases my fancy to sweep back the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>A neighbor of hers gathered fabulous gain.<br\/>He sought for repose, but the quest was in vain.<br\/>He coveted fame with ambition sincere,<br\/>But for every good word cam a critical sneer.<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cDear Madam,\u201d said he,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In a manner quite free,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cYou are wasting your time as you sweep back the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHo! Ho!\u201d she made answer. \u201cYou toil year by year,<br\/>\u2018Mid the ebb and flow of despair and good cheer.<br\/>Your task is like mine, only hardly so wise,<br\/>Since I get fresh air and some fine exercise.\u201d<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And he answered, \u201cAh, me!<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;If you like, I will be<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Your partner and help you to sweep back the sea!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Evening Star, June 4, 1914. By Philander Johnson. There was an old lady who swept back the seaAnd she was as busy as busy could be.We laughed to observe her industrious style,But she kept at her task with a song and a smile.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s better,\u201d said she,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cTo work, you\u2019ll agree,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And it pleases my fancy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-8265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evening-star","category-newspapers","tag-philander-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265","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=8265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}