Les occupations solitaires : travail à domicile

Albert Rutherston - The song of the shirt, 1902

Le poème, bien connu des écoliers anglais, est de Thomas Hood, qui le publia dans Punch en 1843 en l'honneur de Mrs Biddell, veuve du quartier de Lambeth et couturière à domicile.

With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat, in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread
Stitch! stitch! stitch!
In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch
She sang the "Song of the Shirt"...

..."Work--work--work
Till the brain begins to swim;
Work--work--work
Till the eyes are heavy and dim!
Seam, and gusset, and band,
Band, and gusset, and seam,
Till over the buttons I fall asleep,
And sew them on in a dream!