Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyts New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Blacksmith
Cursd be that wretch (Deaths factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Mans left to epitomize! Abraham CowleyIn Commendation of the Time we live under, the Reign of our gracious King, Charles II.
Come, see the Dolphins anchor forged; tis at a white heat now: The billows ceased, the flames decreased; though on the forges brow The little flames still fitfully play through the sable mound; And fitfully you still may see the grim smiths ranking round, All clad in leathern panoply, their broad hands only bare; Some rest upon their sledges here, some work the windlass there. Samuel FergusonThe Forging of the Anchor. St. 1.
And the smith his iron measures hammered to the anvils chime; Thanking God, whose boundless wisdom makes the flowers of poesy bloom In the forges dust and cinders, in the tissues of the loom. LongfellowNuremberg. L. 34.
Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands: The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands. LongfellowThe Village Blacksmith.
As great Pythagoras of yore, Standing beside the blacksmiths door, And hearing the hammers, as they smote The anvils with a different note, Stole from the varying tones, that hung Vibrant on every iron tongue, The secret of the sounding wire, And formed the seven-chorded lyre. LongfellowTo a Child. L. 175.
And he sang: Hurra for my handiwork! And the red sparks lit the air; Not alone for the blade was the bright steel made; And he fashioned the first ploughshare. Chas. MackayTubal Cain. St. 4.
The paynefull smith, with force of fervent heat, The hardest yron soone doth mollify, That with his heavy sledge he can it beat, And fashion it to what he it list apply. SpenserSonnet XXXII.