Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Miscellaneous Sonnets. VIII. Work and Contemplation

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)

THE WOMAN singeth at her spinning-wheel

A pleasant chant, ballad or barcarole;

She thinketh of her song, upon the whole,

Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel

Is full, and artfully her fingers feel

With quick adjustment, provident control,

The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll,

Out to a perfect thread. I hence appeal

To the dear Christian church—that we may do

Our Father’s business in these temples mirk,

Thus swift and steadfast, thus intent and strong;

While thus, apart from toil, our souls pursue

Some high, calm, spheric tune, and prove our work

The better for the sweetness of our song.