Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HAMMER AND ANVIL, by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HAMMER AND ANVIL, by                    
First Line: Look forth and tell me what they do
Last Line: Men's hammers break, god's anvil stands.
Subject(s): Fights; Judgments


"Hammer away, ye hostile hands;
Your hammers break, God's anvil stands."

LOOK forth and tell me what they do
On Life's broad field. Oh, still they fight,
The False forever with the True,
The Wrong forever with the Right.
And still God's faithful ones, as men
Who hold a fortress strong and high,
Cry out in confidence again,
And find a comfort in the cry:
"Hammer away, ye hostile hands,
Your hammers break, God's anvil stands."

Older than pyramid or sphinx,
Old as the stars themselves, the word
Whereby, when other courage sinks,
The courage born of heaven is stirred.
For, when God made the world and knew
That good and evil could not blend,
He planned, however men might do,
What should be would be in the end.
And, though as thick as ocean sands
They rain their blows, the anvil stands.

Oh, many a time has this vain world
Essayed to thwart the mighty plan;
Its fleets and armies have been hurled
Against the common rights of man.
But wrecked Armadas, Waterloos,
Empires abandoned to decay,
Proclaim the truth they did not choose—
What broken hammers strew the way!
Though all the world together bands
To smite it, still the anvil stands.

Thou knowest that thy cause is just?
Then rest in that; thy cause is sure.
Thy word is true? Oh, then it must,
In spite of slanderous tongues endure.
As toward the crag the billow rides,
Then falls back, shattered, to its place:
As fans the breeze the mountain sides,
Nor fans the mountain from its base,—
So, in all times and in all lands,
Men's hammers break, God's anvil stands.





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