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."
Thomas Hood (1799-1845), British poet. repr. In Complete Poetical Works, ed. Walter Jerrold (1906). The Song of the Shirt, st. 1 (1843). Opening lines. (1) (0)