| Poems by Women |
HANNAH BINDING SHOES
Lucy Larcom [1824-1893]
Poor lone Hannah,
Sitting at the window, binding
shoes:
Faded, wrinkled,
Sitting, stitching, in a mournful
muse.
Bright-eyed beauty once was she,
When the bloom was on the tree;
-
Spring and winter,
Hannah's at the window, binding shoes.
Not a neighbor
Passing, nod or answer will refuse
To her
whisper,
"Is there from the fishers any news?"
Oh, her heart's adrift with
one
On an endless voyage gone; -
Night and morning,
Hannah's at the
window, binding shoes.
Fair young Hannah,
Ben, the sunburnt fisher, gaily wooes;
Hale and
clever,
For a willing heart and hand he sues.
May-day skies are all
aglow,
And the waves are laughing so!
For her wedding
Hannah leaves her
window and her shoes.
May is passing;
'Mid the apple-boughs a pigeon cooes:
Hannah
shudders,
For the mild south-wester mischief brews.
Round the rocks of
Marblehead,
Outward bound, a schooner sped;
Silent, lonesome,
Hannah's
at the window, binding shoes.
'Tis November:
Now no tear her wasted cheek bedews,
From
Newfoundland
Not a sail returning will she lose,
Whispering hoarsely:
"Fishermen,
Have you, have you heard of Ben?"
Old with
watching,
Hannah's at the window, binding shoes.
Twenty winters
Bleak and drear the ragged shore she views.
Twenty
seasons: -
Never one has brought her any news.
Still her dim eyes
silently
Chase the white sails o'er the sea; -
Hopeless,
faithful,
Hannah's at the window, binding shoes.
From: Stevenson, Burton Egbert.
The Home Book of Verse.
This poet:
[Author index]
This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.
Citing poems from these pages:
| Author. "Poem Title." Women's History: Poems by Women. Jone Johnson Lewis, editor. URL: (date of logon) |
