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A Year's Spinning

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.

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Comments

1 - 8 of 8

  • March 25
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    Read my analysis of this poem on Helium.com

    From guest Jerry Curtis (contact)
    See my article analyzing this poem on the writer's web site, Helium.com. Go to http://www.helium.com/items/1389930-a-years-spinning-by-elizabeth-barrett-browning .

  • dnoeman
    March 20
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    literary

    Are there any literary devices in this poem?


  • I-Like-Rhymes Moderators member
    March 20
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    To my mind this is a poem depicting the saddness and regret of an unmarried mother.
    In the era when this was written it was not uncommon for young spinster ladies to spin thread with a hand driven spinning wheel (Hence the name spinster). Making items that might be needed to support her in the future.
    But repetition of the spinning motif throughout the piece also seems to be the closest E.B.B. can come to talking about "making love".
    In this piece her lover interupts her at her labours and pledges his affections (oath refers to a pledge not a curse). She believed him and they made love but she now knows he was lying.
    Her mother heard the man's promises but recognised the deceipt and tried to tell her unbelieving (pregnant?) daughter how foolish she was being to think that she could stop spinning (thread) because a man was going to support her. The daughter now knows the truth of her mother's words.
    She thought she would soon be married and hearing her children but now knows there will be no marriage and her child is dead and buried, perhaps stillborn?
    No name on her head stone seems to indicate no married name, no marriage, no husband. This would also explain the stone upon her heart.
    The sinner the neighbours talk of is the girl herself who became, for a time, an unmarried mother, a great sin at that time.
    The final verse is perhaps an indication that though she may be old and no longer nubile her former lover may return.


  • March 19
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    analyzation

    From guest Diana (contact)
    How would you analyze this beautiful poem?


  • November 25, 2003
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    Tina questions the meaning of "spinning." I gather that spinning is often made in connection with spinning a tale, and when she says her spinning is all done, she means she is no longer lying to herself.

  • Cinara
    September 23, 2003
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    She was obviously betrayed and suffered the results of his loss along with the tragic death of her child, and may have committed suicide or simply died of grief, either way, her life ended with the child's death, for that is when the wheel stopped spinning. There is a whole life story here revolving around a spinning wheel, and masterfully told in this beautiful verse


  • September 16, 2003
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    i'm glad that i followed your link here, tina. this is very moving and even almost unsettling. i don't know if i'd say spinning is life, per se, but at least represents an era of living. i seem to recall it used to be common to label a middle aged (or older) unmarried woman a spinstress. i wonder if there is any correlation at all. in any case, to follow the way she gave up duty for love only to have it come to an ugly end was very sad. it causes me to think of all the many young women who fall prey to that kind of man. the one who promises everything and in the end only runs. the lasting image of her wheel by the door, as a signal for him and her woes, it powerful. i really did enjoy this.


  • September 15, 2003
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    reminds me of the fates...
    as life itself unfolds where
    the spinning represents differen aspects of one's life...
    delicate in each stroke

  • Ava Noire
    September 15, 2003
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    I'm wondering what 'spinning' is supposed to represent. The spinning of love's threads perhaps? Or maybe spinning could represnt life...As she lies on her death bed she says her spinning (life) is all done...

    this one is very interesting. I can see spiritual reference as well but it is hard for me to tie it all up together

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