Prayers of Steel

by Carl Sandburg

Prayers of Steel is featured in Sandburg's Pulitzer Prize winning collection, Cornhuskers, published in 1918.

An illustration for the story Prayers of Steel by the author Carl Sandburg — Pittsburgh Steel, Workers Filing Molds, 1905

Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.

Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights 
into white stars.

You may also enjoy Woody Guthrie's folk song, Hard Traveling.

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