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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  The Spinner

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Disappointment in Love

The Spinner

Mary Ainge De Vere (Madeline Bridges)

THE SPINNER twisted her slender thread

As she sat and spun:

“The earth and the heavens are mine,” she said,

“And the moon and sun;

Into my web the sunlight goes,

And the breath of May,

And the crimson life of the new-blown rose

That was born to-day.”

The spinner sang in the hush of noon

And her song was low:

“Ah, morning, you pass away too soon,

You are swift to go.

My heart o’erflows like a brimming cup

With its hopes and fears.

Love, come and drink the sweetness up

Ere it turn to tears.”

The spinner looked at the falling sun:

“Is it time to rest?

My hands are weary,—my work is done,

I have wrought my best;

I have spun and woven with patient eyes

And with fingers fleet.

Lo! where the toil of a lifetime lies

In a winding-sheet!”