Hannah Binding Shoes
Poor lone Hannah,
Sitting at the window, binding shoes!
Faded, wrinkled,
Sitting, stitching, in a mournful muse.
Bright-eyed beauty once was she,
When the bloom was on the tree;—
Spring and winter,
Hannah’s at the window, binding shoes.
Not a neighbor
Passing, nod or answer will refuse
To her whisper,
“Is there from the fishers any news?”
Oh, her heart’s adrift with one
On an endless voyage gone;—
Night and morning,
Hannah’s at the window, binding shoes.
Fair young Hannah,
Ben, the sunburnt fisher, gaily wooes;
Hale and clever,
For a willing heart and hand he sues.
May-day skies are all aglow,
And the waves are laughing so!
For her wedding
Hannah leaves her window and her shoes.
May is passing;
’Mid the apple-boughs a pigeon cooes;
Hannah shudders,
For the mild south-wester mischief brews.
Round the rocks of Marblehead,
Outward bound a schooner sped;
Silent, lonesome,
Hannah’s at the window, binding shoes.
’Tis November:
Now no tear her wasted cheek bedews,
From Newfoundland
Not a sail returning will she lose,
Whispering hoarsely: “Fishermen,
Have you, have you heard of Ben?”
Old with watching,
Hannah’s at the window, binding shoes.
Twenty winters
Bleak and drear the ragged shore she views,
Twenty seasons!
Never one has brought her any news,
Still her dim eyes silently
Chase the white sails o’er the sea;—
Hopeless, faithful,
Hannah’s at the window, binding shoes.
Lucy Larcom.