Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.

On Millet’s Picture of Two Women Sewing by Lamplight

Lilla (Cabot) Perry

YE silent toilers, lift your weary eyes,

And loose your unaccustomed tongues, and tell

What thoughts within your brooding memories dwell,

Whence the sad patience on your lips that lies,

Speaking of constant toil and mysteries

Of simple nature ye alone know well,

Whose days flow on with the monotonous swell

Of laboring ocean ’neath dark, quiet skies.

Does love light up for you all common things,

As this one lamp with its untiring beams

Weaves for the homely room a crown of light,

And o’er its poverty soft beauty flings?

Do little flaxen heads, deep sunk in dreams

Behind the curtains there, make sweet the night?