1 <br />He listened at the porch that day, <br /> To hear the wheel go on, and on; <br />And then it stopped, ran back away, <br /> While through the door he brought the sun: <br /> But now my spinning is all done. <br /> <br /> 2 <br />He sat beside me, with an oath <br /> That love ne'er ended, once begun; <br />I smiled--believing for us both, <br /> What was the truth for only one: <br /> And now my spinning is all done. <br /> <br /> 3 <br />My mother cursed me that I heard <br /> A young man's wooing as I spun: <br />Thanks, cruel mother, for that word-- <br /> For I have, since, a harder known! <br /> And now my spinning is all done. <br /> <br /> 4 <br />I thought--O God!--my first-born's cry <br /> Both voices to mine ear would drown: <br />I listened in mine agony-- <br /> It was the silence made me groan! <br /> And now my spinning is all done. <br /> <br /> 5 <br />Bury me 'twixt my mother's grave, <br /> (Who cursed me on her death-bed lone) <br />And my dead baby's (God it save!) <br /> Who, not to bless me, would not moan. <br /> And now my spinning is all done. <br /> <br /> 6 <br />A stone upon my heart and head, <br /> But no name written on the stone! <br />Sweet neighbours, whisper low instead, <br /> "This sinner was a loving one-- <br /> And now her spinning is all done." <br /> <br /> 7 <br />And let the door ajar remain, <br /> In case he should pass by anon; <br />And leave the wheel out very plain,-- <br /> That HE, when passing in the sun, <br /> May see the spinning is all done.<br /><br />Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-year-s-spinning/
