......plying her needle and thread

Liz’ comment in the last post reminded me I have a book of quote’s, ‘Magill’s Quotations in Context’ to be exact (Harper and Row, 1965). A book I bought in February 1983 in a discount store, in search of the truth, or an answer at least to vaguely formed questions in my young mind. The Tolkien quote isn’t in this book, but I did go searching for something I might be able to use in the blog, lo and behold, a poem about rags, stitches and sewing; sounds familiar right! I absolutely love how one thing leads to another and how I can wander into a different world, another era through the power of images and words.  

‘A woman sat, in unwomanly rags, plying her needle and thread’

Source: The Song of the Shirt (Stanza 1)

Author: Thomas Hood (1799-1845)

Humanitarian poem, first published 1843

Context: Hood, a minor romantic poet, wrote ‘The Song of the Shirt’ to awaken the public to the hardships of workers in England. The woman in the poem is depicted as a widow who has to support her family by sewing for seven shillings a week. The destitute woman sings a song of protest: ‘It is not linen you’re wearing out/ But human creatures’ lives…Oh, God! That bread should be so dear,/ And flesh and blood so cheap!’ The woman’s heart and brain are ‘benumbed’ by the ceaseless labor. She longs to breathe fresh air and enjoy nature. But she cannot even find time to weep. She is becoming like the steam engine,  ‘A mere machine of iron and wood/ That toils for Mammon’s sake,/ Without a brain to ponder and craze/ Or a heart to feel---and break!’ The woman is a hopeless slave who ‘has never a soul to save, ‘ but the poet wishes that her song ‘could reach the rich!’ The first stanza describes the woman:

With fingers weary and worn,

With eyelids heavy and red,

A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,

Plying her needle and thread - - -

Stitch! stitch! stitch!

In poverty, hunger, and dirt,

And still with a voice of dolorous pitch

She sang the ‘Song of the Shirt.’

the wonders of the web have led me to this site cummingsstudyguides (there are more) with the entire poem and background information

there are even several video's:

Malc Cowle reading