A Year's Spinning

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