Myself Was Formed a Carpenter
poem 488
Myself Was Formed a Carpenter - meaning Summary
Identity Shaped by Craft
The poem imagines the speaker as a carpenter whose simple, honest craft shapes identity and purpose. Working with a plane and tools becomes a metaphor for self-formation and service. When an external Builder appears to assess and possibly employ them, the speaker’s tools take on human faces and the workshop becomes a site of spiritual ambition. The closing recognition of making temples suggests work as both worldly labor and sacred vocation.
Read Complete AnalysesMyself was formed a Carpenter An unpretending time My Plane and I, together wrought Before a Builder came To measure our attainments Had we the Art of Boards Sufficiently developed He’d hire us At Halves My Tools took Human Faces The Bench, where we had toiled Against the Man persuaded We Temples build I said
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