| GIVE me a pen of steel! | |
| Away with the gray goose-quill! | |
| I will grave the thoughts I feel | |
| With a fiery heart and will: | |
| I will grave with the stubborn pen | 5 |
| On the tablets of the heart, | |
| Words never to fade again | |
| And thoughts that shall ne'er depart. | |
| |
| Give me a pen of steel! | |
| Hardened and bright and keen,— | 10 |
| To run like the chariot wheel, | |
| When the battle-flame is seen:— | |
| And give me the warrior's heart, | |
| To struggle thro' night and day, | |
| And to write with this thing of art | 15 |
| Words clear as the lightning's play. | |
| |
| Give me a pen of steel! | |
| The softer age is done, | |
| And the thoughts that lovers feel | |
| Have long been sought and won:— | 20 |
| No more of the gray goose-quill— | |
| No more of the lover's lay— | |
| I have done with the minstrel's skill, | |
| And I change my path to-day. | |
| |
| Give me a pen of steel! | 25 |
| I will tell to after-times | |
| How nerve and iron will | |
| Are poured to the world in rhymes:— | |
| How the soul is changed to power, | |
| And the heart is changed to flame, | 30 |
| In the space of a passing hour | |
| By poverty and shame! | |
| |
| Give me a pen of steel!— | |
| But even this shall rust, | |
| The touch of time shall feel, | 35 |
| And crumble away to dust:— | |
| So perishes my heart, | |
| Corroding day by day— | |
| And laid like the pen apart, | |
| Worn out and cast away! | 40 |
