I Have Signed the Pledge

I have signed the pledge, the temperance pledge!
     Such a little boy as I? you say;
Oh! yes, I am small, and so is the edge
     Of your broadax; but it spreads away
To a noble head, and the chips must go
When it hews to the line with blow on blow!

I have signed the pledge, the guardian pledge,
     That none who walk are too small to sign.
Too small? ‘Tis the little end of the wedge
     That starts the crack in the knotted pine;
Let it begin there, and it rips
The sturdies oak into basket-strips.

I have signed the pledge, the beautiful pledge;
     I will keep it—it keeps me no less;
You guard young corn with a sturdy hedge,
     Our young souls need it as well, I guess:
We little blades beginning to shoot
Have a tempting look to the old black goat!

I have signed the pledge, the glorious pledge;
     And though I am small and my years are few,
I grow—‘tis a smart boy’s privilege!—
     And I’ll pick up time as fast as you!
The wedge grows into me, one live bough,
As the buds you set in a sapling grow!

I have signed the pledge, the living pledge;
     One chance the jail and the poor-house lose;
There’s one less chance for the river-dredge
     To be clogged with a sot in its dripping ooze;
And one bid more for the crown that waits
The virtuous man at the golden gates.