Mrs. Harris’s Soliloquy, While Threading Her Needle
by Lady Dufferin
Ah deary me ! what needles ! - well really I must say,
All things are sadly altered - (for the worse too) since my day !
The pins have neither heads nor points - the needles have no eyes,
And there’s ne’er a pair of scissors of the good old-fashioned size !
The very bodkins now are made in fine new-fangled ways,
And the good old British thimble - is a dream of other days !
Now that comes of machinery ! - I’m given to understand,
That great folks turn their noses up, at all things “done by hand,”
Altho’ it’s easy proving to the most thick-pated dunce,
That things ar’nt done the better - for all being done at once.
I’m sure I often ponder, with a kind of awful dread
On those bold “spinning-jennies,” that”go off, of their own head !”
Those power-looms and odd machines, - those whizzing things with wheels,
That ever-more “keep moving !” - besides, one really feels
So superannuated-like, and laid upon the shelf-
When one sees a worsted stocking, get up, and knit itself !
(the first verse of) a sweet poem that reminds me of my Mum & Grandma. :)
