| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Soul Stithy |
| | | James Chapman Woods |
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| MY soul, asleep between its body throes, | |
| Mid leagues of darkness watch’d a furnace glare, | |
| And breastless arms that wrought laborious there,— | |
| Power without plan, wherefrom no purpose grows,— | |
| Welding white metal on a forge with blows, | 5 |
| Whence stream’d the singing sparks like flaming hair, | |
| Which whirling gusts ever abroad would bear: | |
| And still the stithy hammers fell and rose. | |
| And then I knew those sparks were souls of men, | |
| And watch’d them driven like starlets down the wind. | 10 |
| A myriad died and left no trace to tell; | |
| An hour like will-o’-the-wisps some lit the fen; | |
| Now one would leave a trail of fire behind: | |
| And still the stithy-hammers rose and fell. | |
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