| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Twist Ye, Twine Ye! | | By Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | | TWIST 1 ye, twine ye! even so, | |
| Mingle shades of joy and woe, | |
| Hope and fear and peace and strife, | |
| Is the thread of human life. | |
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| While the mystic twist in spinning, | 5 |
| And the infant’s life beginning, | |
| Dimly seen through twilight bending, | |
| Lo, what varied shapes attending! | |
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| Passions wild, and follies vain, | |
| Pleasures soon exchanged for pain; | 10 |
| Doubt and jealousy and fear, | |
| In the magic dance appear. | |
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| Now they wax and now they dwindle, | |
| Whirling with the whirling spindle. | |
| Twist ye, twine ye! even so | 15 |
| Mingle human bliss and woe. | |
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