Sparkles From The Wheel

By the curb, toward the edge of the flagging,
A knife-grinder works at his wheel, sharpening a great knife;
Bending over, he carefully holds it to the stone—by foot and knee,
With measur’d tread, he turns rapidly—As he presses with light but firm hand,
Forth issue, then, in copious golden jets,
Sparkles from the wheel.
- Walt Whitman “Sparkles from the Wheel”

The Anchoress describes the difference between "give me" and "please take" and does so in a wonderfully written essay on a bootstrap nation. Anything I could write here would sound empty next to the power of her words. Go read what she wrote.