Prayers of Steel

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | 349 words | Copyright

Prayers of Steel, free‐verse poem by Sandburg, published in Cornhuskers (1918). Symbolizing the attitude of the modern worker, the poet represents the unformed metal as supplicating.
Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike … Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.

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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Prayers of Steel." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Prayers of Steel." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-PrayersofSteel.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Prayers of Steel." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-PrayersofSteel.html

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