Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SOBBING WOMAN by ARTHUR W. UPSON

First Line: I HEARD A WOMAN SOBBING IN THE NIGHT
Last Line: THAT SPINS UNSEEN HER ENDLESS UMBER SKEIN.
Subject(s): SONNET (AS LITERARY FORM);
I HEARD a woman sobbing in the night
Against a casement high. And as she cried
Our heartless world's deliberate homicide,
Our tragic badinage, our mortal slight
Of elemental claims, and the dark plight
Of the poor I faced there, rigid, open-eyed.
Across the unechoing street in silence died
Her weary moaning. Whether in her sight
Some star appeared to soothe her present pain
With memories sweet, or quiet sleep's strong hand
Blunted her keen-edged woe, or other fear
Came smothering down too close for sob or tear,
I could not guess;—some Fate may understand
That spins unseen her endless umber skein.



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