"Carl Sandburg's muscular poem that uses construction imagery as metaphor for the work of the soul - "Lay me on an anvil, O God./Beat and hammer me into a crowbar" to loosen old walls and foundations, "into a steel spike" that holds girders together; "Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars" - is given complementary musical treatment. The song is dynamically forceful until the final poetic line, which is set more softly as the vocal line soars to a quietly sustained E4 and F♯4 at the end."