1
He listened at the porch that day,
      To hear the wheel go on, and on;
And then it stopped, ran back away,
      While through the door he brought the sun:
      But now my spinning is all done.

      2
He sat beside me, with an oath
      That love ne’er ended, once begun;
I smiled—believing for us both,
      What was the truth for only one:
      And now my spinning is all done.

      3
My mother cursed me that I heard
      A young man’s wooing as I spun:
Thanks, cruel mother, for that word—
      For I have, since, a harder known!
      And now my spinning is all done.

      4
I thought—O God!—my first-born’s cry
      Both voices to mine ear would drown:
I listened in mine agony—
      It was the silence made me groan!
      And now my spinning is all done.

      5
Bury me ‘twixt my mother’s grave,
      (Who cursed me on her death-bed lone)
And my dead baby’s (God it save!)
      Who, not to bless me, would not moan.
      And now my spinning is all done.

      6
A stone upon my heart and head,
      But no name written on the stone!
Sweet neighbours, whisper low instead,
      “This sinner was a loving one—
      And now her spinning is all done.”

      7
And let the door ajar remain,
      In case he should pass by anon;
And leave the wheel out very plain,—
      That HE, when passing in the sun,
      May see the spinning is all done.