A Sense of Humor

Edgar A. Guest's A Sense of Humor

Edgar A. Guest’s A Sense of Humor is a deceptively simple poem that explores the divine bestowal of virtues upon humanity, culminating in the assertion that humor is among the most essential. Written in Guest’s characteristic accessible style, the poem blends theological reflection with practical wisdom, presenting humor not merely as a trivial amusement but as a sustaining force in human endurance. This essay examines the poem’s historical and cultural context, its literary devices, thematic depth, and emotional resonance, while also considering its philosophical implications and Guest’s broader poetic oeuvre.

Historical and Cultural Context

Edgar Albert Guest (1881–1959) was a British-born American poet whose work gained immense popularity in the early 20th century. Often referred to as "the people’s poet," Guest wrote in a straightforward, sentimental style that resonated with middle-class American readers. His poetry frequently extolled virtues such as perseverance, kindness, and optimism—values that aligned with the early 20th-century American ethos of self-reliance and moral fortitude.

A Sense of Humor reflects the cultural preoccupations of its time. The early 1900s saw rapid industrialization, economic fluctuations, and the trauma of World War I, all of which necessitated resilience. Guest’s poem suggests that humor is not frivolity but a psychological necessity—a means of enduring hardship without succumbing to bitterness. This perspective aligns with contemporaneous psychological thought, including William James’s writings on the adaptive function of humor in maintaining mental equilibrium.

Furthermore, the poem’s theological framing—God deliberating over human gifts—echoes a long tradition of divine bestowal narratives, from the biblical creation story to Milton’s Paradise Lost. However, Guest democratizes this tradition, presenting humor not as a divine mystery but as a practical tool for daily survival.

Literary Devices and Structure

Dialogue as a Narrative Device

The poem unfolds as a dialogue between God and an angel, a structure that lends it both a mythic quality and an intimate immediacy. The conversational tone makes abstract virtues—wisdom, patience, kindness—feel tangible. The shift from divine deliberation ("What shall I give him now?") to human testimony ("My sense of humor," he replied) bridges the cosmic and the personal, reinforcing the idea that humor is a divine gift with earthly utility.

Imagery and Symbolism

Guest employs imagery that contrasts the lofty ("the skies are bright," "Earth’s beauty shall delight his eyes") with the mundane ("petty wrong," "changing moods"). This juxtaposition underscores humor’s role in mediating between life’s grand aspirations and its inevitable frustrations. The "angry men" of the later stanza symbolize the absurdity of human conflict, suggesting that laughter is an antidote to needless strife.

Paradox and Irony

The poem’s central irony lies in the angel’s interjection: wisdom, strength, and moral clarity are deemed insufficient without humor. This subverts traditional hierarchies of virtue, positioning humor not as a lesser quality but as the keystone that holds other virtues together. The final stanza reinforces this paradox—humor, often associated with lightness, is revealed as the foundation of patience and bravery in adversity.

Themes

The Necessity of Humor in Human Resilience

The poem’s primary argument is that humor is indispensable for enduring life’s trials. Unlike wisdom or strength, which are static endowments, humor is dynamic—it allows one to reinterpret suffering, to "smile at petty wrong" rather than be crushed by it. This aligns with modern psychological understandings of humor as a coping mechanism, a way to reframe adversity and reduce its emotional weight.

The Divine in the Everyday

Guest’s portrayal of God as a deliberative figure, open to suggestion from an angel, humanizes the divine. The poem suggests that the sacred is not remote but intimately involved in equipping humans for daily life. The bestowal of humor—a trait often overlooked in religious discourse—elevates the mundane to the status of divine grace.

The Absurdity of Human Conflict

The reference to "how laughable are angry men" critiques human pettiness. By framing anger as absurd, Guest advocates for emotional detachment—not indifference, but a perspective that prevents minor grievances from escalating into major conflicts. This theme resonates with Stoic philosophy, which emphasizes mastering one’s emotional responses to external events.

Comparative Analysis

Guest’s poem can be fruitfully compared to other works that explore humor as a survival tool. Shakespeare’s fools—such as Touchstone in As You Like It or Feste in Twelfth Night—serve a similar function, using wit to expose folly and ease tension. Like Guest, Shakespeare suggests that humor is not mere entertainment but a form of wisdom.

A more contemporary parallel exists in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, where humor is described as a vital means of preserving humanity in the direst circumstances. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, writes that humor allowed prisoners to momentarily transcend their suffering—a sentiment echoed in Guest’s closing lines.

Biographical Insights

Guest’s own life informs the poem’s emphasis on perseverance. As a working-class immigrant who rose to literary prominence through relentless productivity (he wrote over 11,000 poems), Guest embodied the virtues he celebrated. His poetry often reflected his belief in optimism and hard work, and A Sense of Humor can be read as a distillation of his personal philosophy—that laughter is not escapism but a strategy for resilience.

Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives

Philosophically, the poem aligns with existentialist thought, particularly Camus’ assertion that we must imagine Sisyphus happy. If life’s struggles are inevitable, humor becomes a way to embrace the absurd rather than despair over it. Psychologically, the poem anticipates the work of scholars like Norman Cousins, who argued that laughter has healing properties, both mentally and physically.

Emotional Impact

The poem’s emotional power lies in its simplicity and universality. It does not demand erudition but speaks directly to lived experience. The closing lines—"What keeps you brave who are so tried? / 'My sense of humor,' he replied"—resonate because they affirm a truth many recognize instinctively: that laughter is often the difference between endurance and collapse.

Conclusion

Edgar A. Guest’s A Sense of Humor is a quietly profound meditation on the role of humor in human flourishing. Through its mythic framework, accessible language, and psychological insight, the poem elevates humor from a social nicety to a existential necessity. In doing so, it captures a timeless truth: that the ability to laugh—at the world, at others, and at oneself—is among the most divine of gifts.

Guest’s work may lack the complexity of high modernism, but its enduring appeal lies in its affirmation of everyday resilience. In a world that often feels overwhelming, A Sense of Humor reminds us that laughter is not just a reaction to life but a way of surviving it.

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