The Song of the Shirt
- 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."
- "Work! work! work!
- While the cock is crowing aloof!
- And work--work--work,
- Till the stars shine through the roof!
- It's Oh! to be a slave
- Along with the barbarous Turk,
- Where woman has never a soul to save,
- If this is Christian work!
- "Work--work--work
- Till the brain begins to swim;
- Work--work--work
- Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
- Seam, and gusset, and band,
- Band, and gusset, and seam,
- Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
- And sew them on in a dream!
- "Oh, Men, with Sisters dear!
- Oh, Men, with Mothers and Wives!
- It is not linen you're wearing out,
- But human creatures' lives!
- Stitch--stitch--stitch,
- In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
- Sewing at once with a double thread,
- A Shroud as well as a Shirt.
- But why do I talk of Death?
- That Phantom of grisly bone,
- I hardly fear its terrible shape,
- It seems so like my own--
- It seems so like my own,
- Because of the fasts I keep;
- Oh, God! that bread should be so dear,
- And flesh and blood so cheap!
- "Work--work--work!
- My Labour never flags;
- And what are its wages? A bed of straw,
- A crust of bread--and rags.
- That shatter'd roof--and this naked floor--
- A table--a broken chair--
- And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank
- For sometimes falling there!
- "Work--work--work!
- From weary chime to chime,
- Work--work--work!
- As prisoners work for crime!
- Band, and gusset, and seam,
- Seam, and gusset, and band,
- Till the heart is sick, and the brain benumb'd,
- As well as the weary hand.
- "Work--work--work,
- In the dull December light,
- And work--work--work,
- When the weather is warm and bright--
- While underneath the eaves
- The brooding swallows cling
- As if to show me their sunny backs
- And twit me with the spring.
- Oh! but to breathe the breath
- Of the cowslip and primrose sweet--
- With the sky above my head,
- And the grass beneath my feet
- For only one short hour
- To feel as I used to feel,
- Before I knew the woes of want
- And the walk that costs a meal!
- Oh! but for one short hour!
- A respite however brief!
- No blessed leisure for Love or Hope,
- But only time for Grief!
- A little weeping would ease my heart,
- But in their briny bed
- My tears must stop, for every drop
- Hinders needle and thread!"
- 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,--
- Would that its tone could reach the Rich!--
- She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"
Thomas Hood (1799-1845)
Thomas Hood is perhaps chiefly remembered for his humorous poetry including Miss Kilmansegg, which appeared in the New Monthly Magazine. He also wrote a number of serious poems one of which is the popular 'Song of the Shirt' that he published anonymously in the Christmas issue of Punch in 1843.
Inspired by an incident which had newly drawn public attention to the condition of some workers in London. A woman with a starving infant at the breast `was charged at the Lambeth Police-court with pawning her master's goods, for which she had to give two pounds security. Her husband had died by an accident, and left her with two children to support, and she obtained by her needle for the maintenance of herself and family what her master called the good living of seven shillings a week. (Jerrold).
It was a powerful attack on worker exploitation and was immediately reprinted in the London Times and other newspapers across Europe. It was dramatized by Mark Lemon as The Sempstress, highly praised by many of the literary establishment, including Charles Dickens it was printed on broad sheets and cotton handkerchiefs.
An English poet of the Romantic Era and early Victorian age
it was common in his day for women and children to work 14-hour days for starvation wages. Sad to say that today it's still common for women and children to work 14-hour days for starvation wages even though more that two hundred years have passed. Only the location of the exploitation has changed.
During the 19th century an large part of the European and particularly English people rose to the middle class marking a clear contrast against those left behind at the bottom of the economic ladder. One of the results of this was that sweatshops were viewed as became the target of social reform movements . With an increasing number of people rising to the middle class, the contrast presented by those at the bottom of the social and economic ladder became unbearable to many. The Song of the Shirt became an of the impetus of popular opinion and frequently used to support the liberalized labor laws in England. Today it has become a literal translation making it applicable in Guatemala, Thailand and West Africa .
Sources:
HOOD, THOMAS:
99.1911encyclopedia.org/H/HO/HOOD_THOMAS.htm
Public domain text taken from The Poets' Corner:
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hood01.html#7
RPO -- Thomas Hood : The Song of the Shirt:
eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1036.html
Cst Approved. |
