Knitting Poem

I found this while looking for stuff about the Red Cross's "Knit Your Bit" campaign in WWII. In times of trial we are often drawn to the simple acts to help us feel like we are helping to do our part for the greater good.





At the concert and the play
Everywhere you see them sitting,
Knitting, knitting.
Women who the other day
Thought of nothing but their frocks
Or their jewels or their locks,
Women who have lived for pleasure,
Who have known no work but leisure,
Now are knitting, knitting, knitting
For the soldiers over there.

On the trains and on the ships
With a diligence befitting,
They are knitting.
Some with smiles upon their lips,
Some with manners debonair,
Some with earnest look and air.
But each heart in its own fashion,
Weaves in pity and compassion
In their knitting, knitting, knitting
For the soldiers over there.

Hurried women to and fro
From their homes to labour flitting,
Knitting, knitting,
Busy handed come and go.
Broken bits of time they spare,
Just to feel they do their share,
Just to keep life’s sense of beauty
In the doing of a duty,
They are knitting, knitting, knitting
For the soldiers over there.

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1919 in her book, “Poems of Optimism”

For More information on WWII knitting check out the following article http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5722