What a peaceful poem.
The theme is the father/son relationship and how the author’s own memories of his dad make his present day brighter.

A boy and his dad on a fishing-trip—
There is a glorious fellowship!
Father and son and the open sky
And the white clouds lazily drifting by,
And the laughing stream as it runs along
With the clicking reel like a martial song,
And the father teaching the youngster gay
How to land a fish in the sportsman’s way.

I fancy I hear them talking there
In an open boat, and the speech is fair.
And the boy is learning the ways of men
From the finest man in his youthful ken.
Kings, to the youngster, cannot compare
With the gentle father who’s with him there.
And the greatest mind of the human race
Not for one minute could take his place.

Which is happier, man or boy?
The soul of the father is steeped in joy,
For he’s finding out, to his heart’s delight,
That his son is fit for the future fight.
He is learning the glorious depths of him,
And the thoughts he thinks and his every whim;
And he shall discover, when night comes on,
How close he has grown to his little son.

A boy and his dad on a fishing-trip—
Builders of life’s companionship!
Oh, I envy them, as I see them there
Under the sky in the open air,
For out of the old, old long-ago
Come the summer days that I used to know,
When I learned life’s truths from my father’s lips
As I shared the joy of his fishing-trips.

About the author

Edgar Guest

Born in 1881 in England, Edgar Guest was a prolific writer whose poems were often fourteen lines long and presented a deeply sentimental view of everyday life. Edgar guest was born in Birmingham, England in 1881, Edgar moved to Michigan, USA as a young child, in 1895 Edgar guest, 13 year old signed on with the free press office boy, he stayed for sixty years.three years after he left guest joined free press,he became a cub reporter, in 1898 he was working as an assistant editor.

In the novel I Am Legend, the main character Robert Neville sardonically comments on his own internal monologue: “The last man in the world is Edgar Guest”.