Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OLD NAIL SHOP, by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OLD NAIL SHOP, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I dreamt of wings, - and waked to hear
Last Line: "I'll wear the yellow beads to-night."


I dreamt of wings, -- and waked to hear
Through the low-sloping ceiling clear
The nesting starlings flutter and scratch
Among the rafters of the thatch,
Not twenty inches from my head;
And lay, half-dreaming in my bed,
Watching the far elms -- bolt-upright
Black towers of silence in a night
Of stars, between the window-sill
And the low-hung eaves, square-framed, until
I drowsed, and must have slept a wink...
And wakened to a ceaseless clink
Of hammers ringing on the air...
And, somehow, only half-aware,
I'd risen and crept down the stair,
Bewildered by strange smoky gloom,
Until I'd reached the living-room
That once had been a nail-shop shed.
And where my hearth had blazed, instead
I saw the nail-forge glowing red;
And, through the stife and smoky glare,
Three dreaming women standing there
With hammers beating red-hot wire
On tinkling anvils, by the fire,
To ten-a-penny nails; and heard --
Though none looked up or breathed a word --
The song each heart sang to the tune
Of hammers, through a summer's noon,
When they had wrought in that red glow,
Alive, a hundred years ago --
The song of girl and wife and crone,
Sung in the heart of each alone...

The dim-eyed crone with nodding head --
"He's dead; and I'll, too, soon be dead."
The grave-eyed mother, gaunt with need --
"Another little mouth to feed!"

The black-eyed girl, with eyes alight --
"I'll wear the yellow beads to-night."





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