Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LITTLE STITCHES, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LITTLE STITCHES, by                    
First Line: "oh, thoughts that go in with the stitches"
Last Line: To seams in a holy monk's hood
Subject(s): Mothers;women


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.





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