C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Annie Adams Fields (1834–1915)

CLOTHO, Lachesis, Atropos!

All your gain is not my loss.

Spin your black threads if you will;

Twist them, turn, with all your skill.

Hold! there’s one you cannot sever!

One bright thread shall last forever.

You are defied, you, Atropos!

Draw your glittering shears across,—

One still mocks your cruel art!

From the fibres of my heart

Did I spin the shining thread

That will live when you are dead.

Fate, but hark! one thing I’ll teach:

There are wonders past your reach,

Of the heart and of the soul,—

Woman’s love’s past your control!

These are not threads of your spinning,

No, nor shall be of your winning.