Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE OLD NAIL SHOP, by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON 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." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BETWEEN THE LINES by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON BREAKFAST by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON FLANNAN ISLE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON FOR G. by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON GERANIUMS by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON LAMENT by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON RETREAT by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON RUPERT BROOKE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON THE GORSE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON THE ICE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON |
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