S7E3: "Mother, I cannot Mind my Wheel" by Walter Savage Landor

Jan 24, 2022

In this seventh season, we are going to read six poems about romantic love. Love may seem to be the most fundamental subject for poetry, but interestingly, it is not. When we consider the great poetic traditions of almost any people, we find that love is by no means the first matter that has inspired their poets. The poems we will read together come from several different periods in time, and I would like to examine, among other things, how the language of romance has changed in the English-speaking world over the centuries. Today's piece is "Mother, I cannot Mind my Wheel" by Walter Savage Landor. Poem begins at timestamp  .

Mother, I cannot Mind my Wheel

BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

 

Mother, I cannot mind my wheel;

My fingers ache, my lips are dry:

Oh! if you felt the pain I feel!

But Oh, who ever felt as I!

 

No longer could I doubt him true;

All other men may use deceit:

He always said my eyes were blue,

And often swore my lips were sweet.