| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1457. A Drop of Ink |
| | | By Joseph Ernest Whitney |
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| THIS drop of ink chance leaves upon my pen, | |
| What might it write in Milton’s mighty hand! | |
| What might it speak at Shakespeare’s high command! | |
| What words to thrill the throbbing hearts of men! | |
| Or from Beethoven’s soul a grand amen, | 5 |
| All life and death in one full compass spanned! | |
| Who could its power in Goethe ’s touch withstand? | |
| What words of truth it holds beyond our ken,— | |
| What blessed promise we would fain be told, | |
| And cannot,—what grim sentence dread as death,— | 10 |
| What venomous lie, that never shall unfold,— | |
| What law, undoing science with a breath! | |
| But—mockery of life’s quick-wasted lot— | |
| Dropped on a virgin sheet ’t is but a blot! | |
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