November 25, 1928

Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser

Detroit, Michigan, United States

A poem by Edward A. Guest celebrating the completion of the new Hudson's Department Store.

I Am A Store
By Edgar A. Guest
I'm the sum of all men's labor
I'm the song of every land
I'm the glad heart of the neighbor
And the skill of human hand
I'm the dusky savage beating
On the tom tom in his glee
I'm the wind bite and the sleeting
Of the frozen Arctic Sea

I'm an English in my laces
I'm the gayest of France
I'm the sum of all places
Where the feet of men advance
I'm the sum of all the places
Where the feet of men advance
I'm their foibles and their fashions
I am all their foibles and their fashion
I am all their toil has wrought
I'm their dreams, their hopes their passions
And the body of their thought

I am of the past and present
And the future that's to be
Of the monarch and the peasant
Of the mountains and the sea
I am the church and steeple
Of the factory and the field
And the souls of countless people
In my splendor stand revealed

The earth tang is within me
I'm the city's heat and rush
Every mortal hope is in me
I'm the artist's pen or brush
I'm all the world's ambition
I am every want and need
The fulfillment and fruition
Of the tiniest wind blown seed
I'm the end of man's endeavor
I am all things made complete
Here the strangest need whatever
Will the things it searches meet.
I am song and art and story.
I am fruit of every soil.
I'm man's greatest and his glory
And the product of his toil

Am lovely in my beauty
I am tender, gentle, wise.
I am strong and stern for duty
But there's laughter in my eyes
I am everything which may be
Found within the cosmic plan
From the innocence of baby
To the last sad rites for man
I am one f all my brothers
Of the stores throughout the land
Here among the countless others
As a tower of strength I stand
I am strong and wise and tender
I am gloriously made
And the monument of splendor
To the majesty of trade

The buoyant verses, dedicated to the J.L Hudson Company by Mrs. Guest, are published in observances of the completion of the greatest building program in Hudson history.

Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.