Hand in Hand/The Woman's Share
The Woman's Share
SURE it looks the same, but 'tis all different too,
I spin, an’ knit, an’ sing, in the way I used to do:
But the spindle pricks my finger, an’ my voice dies down,
For where’s the use o’ watchin’ at the road from the town?
Sunrise, sunset,
Slow goes the day,
'Tis here he was, an’ I am here,
An’ he is gone away.
Violets at the brookside, I smell them when I pass,
But where’s the boy that picked them as we laughed along the grass?
“No bluer than your two eyes.” How soon do eyes grow dim?
Mine have learnt the tear-sting since last they looked on him.
Sunrise, sunset,
Long night and day!
'Tis here he was, an’ I am here,
An’ he is gone away.
Winds in the autumn, to lash the waves to roar,
He is on the sea, maybe, I am on the shore.
Tossing mat o' sea-wrack, tangle-weed afloat,
Have you been the lucky one, did ye touch his boat?
Sunrise, sunset,
Ah, the weary day!
'Tis here he was, an' I am here,
An' he is gone away.
Winter comes at long last, an' the snow is spread
Cold an' white an' even, like a face that's dead,
Women love a lifetime, that's not the way with men,
'Tis I'll be old an' ugly, an' will he love me then?
Sunrise, sunset,
Slow goes the day.
'Tis here he was, an' I am here,
An' he is gone away.