Classic and Contemporary Poetry
I SIT AND SEW, by ALICE RUTH MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I sit and sew - a useless task it seems Last Line: It stifles me -- god, must I sit and sew? Alternate Author Name(s): Nelson, Alice Dunbar (moore) Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Americans; Sewing; United States; War; America | ||||||||
I sit and sew -- a useless task it seems, My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams -- The panoply of war, the martial tred of men, Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken Of lesser souls, whose eyes have not seen Death, Nor learned to hold their lives but as a breath -- But -- I must sit and sew. I sit and sew -- my heart aches with desire -- That pageant terrible, that fiercely pouring fire On wasted fields, and writhing grotesque things Once men. My soul in pity flings Appealing cries, yearning only to go There is that holocaust of hell, those fields of woe -- But -- I must sit and sew. The little useless seam, the idle patch; Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch, When there they lie in sodden mud and rain, Pitifully calling me, the quick ones and the slain? You need me, Christ! It is no roseate dream That beckons me -- this pretty futile seam, It stifles me -- God, must I sit and sew? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS WATCH THE LIGHTS FADE by ROBINSON JEFFERS AFTER TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE MEETING YOU AT THE PIERS by KENNETH KOCH INVOCATION TO THE SOCIAL MUSE by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH SONNET by ALICE RUTH MOORE DUNBAR-NELSON |
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