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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SHOEMAKER, by ALICE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Now the hickory with its hum Last Line: To his eyes, then work the faster. Subject(s): Shoes; Boots; Sneakers; Shoemakers | |||
NOW the hickory with its hum Cheers the wild and rainy weather, And the shoemaker has come With his lapstone, last, and leather. With his head as white as wool, With the wrinkles getting bolder, And his heart with news as full As the wallet on his shoulder. How the children's hearts will beat, How their eyes will shine with pleasure As he sets their little feet, Bare and rosy, in his measure, And how, behind his chair, They will steal grave looks to summon, As he ties away his hair From his forehead, like a woman. When he tells the merry news How their eyes will laugh and glisten, While the mother binds the shoes And they gather round and listen. But each one, leaning low On his lapstone, will be crying, As he tells how little Jo, With a broken back is dying. Of the way he came to fall In the flowery April weather, Of the new shoes on the wall That are hanging, tied together. How the face of little Jo Has grown white, and they who love him See the shadows come and go, As if angels flew above him. And the old shoemaker, true To the woe of the disaster, Will uplift his apron blue To his eyes, then work the faster. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BROKEN SANDAL by DENISE LEVERTOV FOR AL-TAYIB SALIH by KHALED MATTAWA SNEAKERS by E. ETHELBERT MILLER BLACK NIKES by HARRYETTE MULLEN THE FURY OF OVERSHOES by ANNE SEXTON A SPINSTER'S STINT by ALICE CARY |
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