Prayers of Steel
Prayers of Steel - meaning Summary
Forged for Practical Strength
Sandburg frames a speaker’s prayer as a wish to be physically forged and made useful: to be hammered into a crowbar, a spike, a rivet—parts that pry, fasten, and hold a skyscraper. The poem merges spiritual surrender with industrial purpose, valuing strength, utility, and collective building. Its imagery makes devotion tangible through labor, casting construction work and metalwork as sacred acts that connect the individual to a larger urban project.
Read Complete AnalysesLay 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.
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