They come as a boon and a blessing to men, The Pickwick, the Owl, and the Waverley pen.

This couplet is best known as an advertising jingle from the late 19th to early 20th century promoting popular steel pen nibs—“Pickwick,” “Owl,” and “Waverley”—sold in Britain and the wider Anglophone market. Such rhymed slogans commonly appeared in stationery catalogues, shop cards, and magazine/newspaper advertisements aimed at clerks, students, and professional writers, for whom a reliable dip pen was an everyday necessity. The verse’s “boon and a blessing” phrasing echoes the elevated diction of Victorian moral poetry, repurposed to lend cultural prestige and memorability to a commercial product. Because it circulated primarily in ephemeral advertising, it is often reprinted without a named author and treated as anonymous.

The line humorously elevates mundane writing tools into near-providential gifts: the pens “come” to men as if bestowed, not merely purchased. By naming three specific nib brands, the couplet functions as a mnemonic—its rhythm and internal list make the product names stick. The diction (“boon,” “blessing”) borrows the tone of earnest Victorian verse, creating a playful contrast between lofty language and commercial intent. Implicitly, it celebrates literacy and the expanding culture of writing—letters, bookkeeping, journalism—suggesting that good pens enable modern life. Read today, it also offers a small window into how ubiquitous branded pen nibs once were, and how advertising adopted poetic forms to naturalize consumer choice.