- Published on
A Bag Of Tools
Isn’t it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?
Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make -
Ere life is flown -
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone.
By R. L. Sharpe (about 1890)
The poem “A Bag of Tools” shown above is possibly a shortened, or revised version, of the poem “Makers of Eternity,” by the same author, which follows below.
Makers Of Eternity
Isn’t it strange, that princes and kings
and clowns that frolic in circus rings,
And ordinary folk like you and me
are makers of eternity.
For each is given a bag of tools,
an hourglass, and a book of rules;
And each shall have built when his hour has flown,
a stumbling block or a stepping stone.
One step upon another and the longest walk is ended,
one stitch upon another and the longest rend is mended,
So never be discouraged by the things you have to do,
and think that such a mighty task you never shall get through;
Just endeavor day by day,
another point to gain,
And soon the mountain that you feared
will have become a plain.
By R. L. Sharpe
Robert Lee Sharpe once told the following story: “One spring day when I was just a kid, my father called me to go with him to Trussell’s blacksmith shop. He had left a rake and a hoe to be repaired. And there they were ready, fixed like new. Father handed over a silver dollar for the repairing. But Mr. Trussell refused to take it. ‘No,’ he said, ‘there’s no charge for that little job.’ But father insisted that he take payment. ‘If I live to be a thousand years,’ said Sharpe, ‘I’ll never forget that old blacksmith’s reply.’ ‘Sid,’ he said to my father, ‘can’t you let an old man do something now and then - just to stretch his soul?’ It’s the old law. The giver receives more than the receiver gets. Bread cast upon the waters comes back a thousand-fold. One who stretches his soul into deeds of love and kindness, unfailingly reaps a just reward.”
Robert Lee Sharpe was born on 14 August 1872 in Georgia, United States of America. For several years he worked with his father, Edwin R. Sharp, who owned the “Carrollton Free Press” newspaper and a printing shop in Carrollton. Following in his father’s footsteps, Robert Lee Sharpe became the owner of Sharpe’s Modern Printing Plant in Carrollton. The story behind why Carrollton became known as the ‘City of Smiles’ is that Robert Lee Sharpe published a book every year called “Smiles,” in which he printed pictures of every person that he could get to smile. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, he traveled extensively, as a freelance writer for magazines. Robert Lee Sharpe passed on at 78 years of age on 19 April 1951 in Carrollton City, Carroll County, Georgia, United States of America.
Isn’t it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?
Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make -
Ere life is flown -
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone.
By R. L. Sharpe (about 1890)
The poem “A Bag of Tools” shown above is possibly a shortened, or revised version, of the poem “Makers of Eternity,” by the same author, which follows below.
Makers Of Eternity
Isn’t it strange, that princes and kings
and clowns that frolic in circus rings,
And ordinary folk like you and me
are makers of eternity.
For each is given a bag of tools,
an hourglass, and a book of rules;
And each shall have built when his hour has flown,
a stumbling block or a stepping stone.
One step upon another and the longest walk is ended,
one stitch upon another and the longest rend is mended,
So never be discouraged by the things you have to do,
and think that such a mighty task you never shall get through;
Just endeavor day by day,
another point to gain,
And soon the mountain that you feared
will have become a plain.
By R. L. Sharpe
Robert Lee Sharpe once told the following story: “One spring day when I was just a kid, my father called me to go with him to Trussell’s blacksmith shop. He had left a rake and a hoe to be repaired. And there they were ready, fixed like new. Father handed over a silver dollar for the repairing. But Mr. Trussell refused to take it. ‘No,’ he said, ‘there’s no charge for that little job.’ But father insisted that he take payment. ‘If I live to be a thousand years,’ said Sharpe, ‘I’ll never forget that old blacksmith’s reply.’ ‘Sid,’ he said to my father, ‘can’t you let an old man do something now and then - just to stretch his soul?’ It’s the old law. The giver receives more than the receiver gets. Bread cast upon the waters comes back a thousand-fold. One who stretches his soul into deeds of love and kindness, unfailingly reaps a just reward.”
Robert Lee Sharpe was born on 14 August 1872 in Georgia, United States of America. For several years he worked with his father, Edwin R. Sharp, who owned the “Carrollton Free Press” newspaper and a printing shop in Carrollton. Following in his father’s footsteps, Robert Lee Sharpe became the owner of Sharpe’s Modern Printing Plant in Carrollton. The story behind why Carrollton became known as the ‘City of Smiles’ is that Robert Lee Sharpe published a book every year called “Smiles,” in which he printed pictures of every person that he could get to smile. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, he traveled extensively, as a freelance writer for magazines. Robert Lee Sharpe passed on at 78 years of age on 19 April 1951 in Carrollton City, Carroll County, Georgia, United States of America.
"Go Let It Out" is an interesting one... Noel Gallagher mis-quotes the original in a way that turns its meaning inside out and upside down. I've always wondered if that was deliberate or not.
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The first time I heard the ‘shapeless mass’ was when the Heptones popularized it in song.
It is a great Biblical principle for every parent when raising a child and for every teacher when teaching a student.
Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
Proverbs 1:8-9 "My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don't neglect your mother's instruction. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck."
saver. Thanks for the extended version.