C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Stone-Cutter

From ‘Songs of Toil’: Translation of John Eliot Bowen

WE hammer, hammer, hammer on and on,

Day out, day in, throughout the year,

In blazing heat and tempests drear;

God’s house we slowly heavenward rear—

We’ll never see it done!

We hammer, hammer, hammer, might and main.

The sun torments, the rain-drops prick,

Our eyes grow blind with dust so thick;

Our name in dust, too, fadeth quick—

No glory and no gain!

We hammer, hammer, hammer ever on.

O blessed God on Heaven’s throne,

Dost thou take a care of every stone

And leave the toiling poor alone,

Whom no one looks upon?