OH, thoughts that go in with the stitches That women quietly take, While castles are built with the needle, And bubbles are rounded to break. You see in your kerchief-hem, Freshman, A dotted line fairy and fine; But see you the prayers low and tender Pricked in with the lengthening line? Betrothed, as you bend o'er the trousseau, Absorbed in your rose-tinted dream, Speak low as you censure the seamstress For waver and knot in the seam. In 'broidery dainty and foreign, That falls at your waist, you can see How trembled the hand of a novice, In spite of the vigil-taught knee. For throbs of a woman heart smothered, And cries that no penance can still, Are lifting the wreath and the roses, Are echoed from girdle and frill. Oh, terrible, blood-reddened ladder Of loops hung on poverty's hands, Up which goes the foot of Oppression To gather gold out of its strands! Waits yonder no echoing thunder, No lightnings to smite from the cloud, When falling tears rust the swift needle, And threads tie the neck of a shroud? Ah, beautiful stitches so tiny, Where brooding love waits in the nest, In shadow of motherhood coming, Half fearful, yet consciously blest! What happy hopes lie in the gathers, Or lurk in the robes soft and fine! What buds underneath the leaves silky, What day-dreams run with the vine! No tale can you tell, little stitches, -- Such tales as you might if you could! From flounces that cover a ball dress, To seams in a holy monk's hood. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MOUSE'S LULLABY by PALMER COX LOVE TO THE CHURCH by TIMOTHY DWIGHT DEFEAT AND VICTORY by WALLACE RICE INDIGNATION; AN ODE by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE TO W. HOHENZOLLERN: A PLEA by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS |