From Dawn to Dawn
Morris Rosenfeld 1862 (Russian Empire) – 1923 (New York City)
I bend o'er the wheel at my sewing;
I'm spent; and I'm hungry for rest;
No curse on the master bestowing,--
No hell-fires within me are glowing,--
Tho' pain flares its fires in my breast.
I mar the new cloth with my weeping,
And struggle to hold back the tears;
A fever comes over me, sweeping
My veins; and all through me goes creeping
A host of black terrors and fears.
The wounds of the old years ache newly;
The gloom of the shop hems me in;
But six o'clock signals come duly:
O, freedom seems mine again, truly...
Unhindered I haste from the din.
Now home again, ailing and shaking,
With tears that are blinding my eyes,
With bones that are creaking and breaking,
Unjoyful of rest... merely taking
A seat; hoping never to rise.
I gaze round me: none for a greeting!
By Life for the moment unpressed,
My poor wife lies sleeping--and beating
A lip-tune in dream false and fleeting,
My child mumbles close to her breast.
I look on them, weeping in sorrow,
And think: "When the Reaper has come--
When finds me no longer the morrow--
What aid then?--from whom will they borrow
The crust of dry bread and the home?
"What harbors that morrow," I wonder,
"For them when the breadwinner's gone?
When sudden and swift as the thunder
The bread-bond is broken asunder,
And friend in the world there is none."
A numbness my brain is o'ertaking...
To sleep for a moment I drop:
Then start!... In the east light is breaking!--
I drag myself, ailing and aching,
Again to the gloom of the shop.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:26 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAAB AXAAX CDCCD AEAAE ABAAB FXFFX GXGGX AHAAH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,464 |
Words | 285 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
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"From Dawn to Dawn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/56233/from-dawn-to-dawn>.
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