Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

TWIST ye, twine ye! even so,

Mingle shades of joy and woe,

Hope and fear and peace and strife,

Is the thread of human life.

While the mystic twist in spinning,

And the infant’s life beginning,

Dimly seen through twilight bending,

Lo, what varied shapes attending!

Passions wild, and follies vain,

Pleasures soon exchanged for pain;

Doubt and jealousy and fear,

In the magic dance appear.

Now they wax and now they dwindle,

Whirling with the whirling spindle.

Twist ye, twine ye! even so

Mingle human bliss and woe.