| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | On Millet’s Picture of Two Women Sewing by Lamplight | | By Lilla (Cabot) Perry |
| | | YE silent toilers, lift your weary eyes, | |
| And loose your unaccustomed tongues, and tell | |
| What thoughts within your brooding memories dwell, | |
| Whence the sad patience on your lips that lies, | |
| Speaking of constant toil and mysteries | 5 |
| Of simple nature ye alone know well, | |
| Whose days flow on with the monotonous swell | |
| Of laboring ocean ’neath dark, quiet skies. | |
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| Does love light up for you all common things, | |
| As this one lamp with its untiring beams | 10 |
| Weaves for the homely room a crown of light, | |
| And o’er its poverty soft beauty flings? | |
| Do little flaxen heads, deep sunk in dreams | |
| Behind the curtains there, make sweet the night? | | | | |
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