Godey’s Lady’s Book/Volume 30/April 1845/The Gold Pen—A Poem

by Sarah Josepha Hale

THE GOLD PEN.—A POEM.

(INSCRIBED TO THE GENTLEMAN WHO PRESENTED THE GIFT.)

BY MRS. SARAH JOSEPHA HALE.

The noblest triumphs of the Soul recorded,
 Have ever with earth’s humble things been blent,—
When ancient Lore and Law Divine were worded,
 A simple reed was all the instrument.

And when proud Genius, like an eagle soaring,
 Caught inspiration from the fount of light,
His sceptre, waved above the world adoring,
 Was but a feather seized to aid his flight.

And now Invention and his brother Labour,
 The surer way to rule the world have found—
They wrest the stubborn steel from War, their neighbour,
 To bid thought flow, as he did blood, around.

A holier change on Hope’s horizon beameth,
 When precious things to precious uses given,
Shall make true glory what the Poet dreameth,
 Who weds the flowers of earth with stars of heaven.

No more shall gold of Ophir be devoted
 To gild the heathen’s god, the tyrant’s sway;
No longer will the man of wealth be quoted
 By what he gains—but what he gives away.

And Woman, then, her chiefest ornamenting
 Will be a spirit loving, meek and pure,
With angel-watchfulness the ill preventing—
 With angel-kindness seeking wo to cure.

And Liberty will be the wealth of nations,
 And Truth the diamond star that decks the great—
And Virtue’s patriot voice assign the stations
 That lead to honour in the ordered State.

As when the Sun upon Earth’s fair attendant,
 The Moon, full-orbed, his evening smile doth throw,
So shall the Mind, enlarged, shine forth resplendent,
 When holy thoughts from golden pens shall flow.

Oh, might my pen of gold but aid to hasten
 This glorious triumph of the good and true,
I’d say, and every boast of pride ’twould chasten,
 “What grateful thanks are to the Giver due!”