| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | A Machine Hand | | By Thomas Ashe (1836–1889) |
| | | MY little milliner has slipp’d | |
| The doctors, with their drugs and ways: | |
| Her years were only twenty-two, | |
| Though long enough her working-days. | |
| |
| At eight she went, through wet or snow, | 5 |
| Nor dallied for the sun to shine; | |
| And walk’d an hour to work, and home | |
| Content if she was in by nine. | |
| |
| She had a little gloomy room, | |
| Up stair on stair, within the roof; | 10 |
| Where hung her pictures on the wall, | |
| Wherever it was weather-proof. | |
| |
| She held her head erect and proud, | |
| Nor ask’d of man or woman aid; | |
| And struggled, till the last; and died | 15 |
| But of the parish pit afraid. | |
| |
| Jennie, lie still! The hair you loved | |
| You wraps, unclipp’d, if you but knew! | |
| We by a quiet graveyard wall, | |
| For love and pity, buried you! | 20 | | | |
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