'The Blacksmith'

Published in All The Year Round (30 April 1859).

Dickens, Charles

Dickens Journals Online, https://www.djo.org.uk/all-the-year-round/volume-i/page-20.html; attr. Shepherd, Plays and Poems (1885), p.232.

Scanned material from Dickens Journals Online, www.djo.org.uk. Available under CC BY licence.

Dickens, Charles. 'The Blacksmith.' All the Year Round (30 April 1859): p. 20. Dickens Search. Eds. Emily Bell and Lydia Craig. Accessed [date]. https://dickenssearch.com/verse/1859-04-30_All_The_Year_Round_The_Blacksmith.

OLD England, she has great warriors,

Great princes, and poets great;

But the Blacksmith is not to be quite forgot,

In the history of the State.

 

He is rich in the best of all metals,

Yet silver he lacks and gold;

And he payeth his due, and his heart is true,

Though he bloweth both hot and cold.

 

The boldest is he of incendiaries

That ever the wide world saw,

And a forger as rank as e’er robbed the Bank,

Though he never doth break the law.

 

He hath shoes that are worn by strangers,

Yet he laugheth and maketh more;

And a share (concealed) in the poor man’s field,

Yet it adds to the poor man’s store.

 

Then, hurrah for the iron Blacksmith!

And hurrah for his iron crew!

And whenever we go where his forges glow,

We’ll sing what A MAN can do.