The Shoemakers

Ho! workers of the old time styled     The Gentle Craft of Leather!     Young brothers of the ancient guild,     Stand forth once more together!     Call out again your long array,     In the olden merry manner!     Once more, on gay St. Crispin's day,     Fling out your blazoned banner!     Rap, rap! upon the well-worn stone     How falls the polished hammer!     Rap, rap! the measured sound has grown     A quick and merry clamor.     Now shape the sole! now deftly curl     The glossy vamp around it,     And bless the while the bright-eyed girl     Whose gentle fingers bound it!     For you, along the Spanish main     A hundred keels are ploughing;     For you, the Indian on the plain     His lasso-coil is throwing;     For you, deep glens with hemlock dark     The woodman's fire is lighting;     For you, upon the oak's gray bark,     The woodman's axe is smiting.     For you, from Carolina's pine     The rosin-gum is stealing;     For you, the dark-eyed Florentine     Her silken skein is reeling;     For you, the dizzy goatherd roams     His rugged Alpine ledges;     For you, round all her shepherd homes,     Bloom England's thorny hedges.     The foremost still, by day or night,     On moated mound or heather,     Whete'er the need of trampled right     Brought toiling men together;     Where the free burghers from the wall     Defied the mail-clad master,     Than yours, at Freedom's trumpet-call,     No craftsmen rallied faster.     Let foplings sneer, let fools deride,     Ye heed no idle scorner;     Free hands and hearts are still your pride,     And duty done, your honor.     Ye dare to trust, for honest fame,     The jury Time empanels,     And leave to truth each noble name     Which glorifies your annals.     Thy songs, Han Sachs, are living yet,     In strong and hearty German;     And Bloomfield's lay, and Gifford's wit,     And patriot fame of Sherman;     Still from his book, a mystic seer,     The soul of Behmen teaches,     And England's priestcraft shakes to hear     Of Fox's leathern breeches.     The foot is yours; where'er it falls,     It treads your well-wrought leather,     On earthen floor, in marble halls,     On carpet, or on heather.     Still there the sweetest charm is found     Of matron grace or vestal's,     As Hebe's foot bore nectar round     Among the old celestials!     Rap, rap! your stout and bluff brogan,     With footsteps slow and weary,     May wander where the sky's blue span     Shuts down upon the prairie.     On Beauty's foot your slippers glance,     By Saratoga's fountains,     Or twinkle down the summer dance     Beneath the Crystal Mountains!     The red brick to the mason's hand,     The brown earth to the tiller's,     The shoe in yours shall wealth command,     Like fairy Cinderella's!     As they who shunned the household maid     Beheld the crown upon her,     So all shall see your toil repaid     With hearth and home and honor.     Then let the toast be freely quaffed,     In water cool and brimming,     "All honor to the good old Craft,     Its merry men and women!"     Call out again your long array,     In the old time's pleasant manner:     Once more, on gay St. Crispin's day,     Fling out his blazoned banner