{
 "id": "edgar-lee-masters/widow-mcfarlane",
 "title": "Widow McFarlane",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Lee Masters",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-lee-masters",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Spoon River Anthology",
 "book_slug": "spoon-river-anthology",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 124,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1916,
  "venue": "Spoon River Anthology (1916)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-lee-masters_spoon-river-anthology",
  "file": "spoon-river-anthology.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://web.archive.org/web/20080723131115/http://spoonriveranthology.net/spoon/river/originalOrder/",
   "https://archive.org/details/spoonriveranthol021mast"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 19,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I was the Widow McFarlane,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weaver of carpets for all the village.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I pity you still at the loom of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You who are singing to the shuttle",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lovingly watching the work of your hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you reach the day of hate, of terrible truth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the cloth of life is woven, you know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a pattern hidden under the loom⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pattern you never see!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And you weave high-hearted, singing, singing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You guard the threads of love and friendship",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For noble figures in gold and purple.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And long after other eyes can see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You have woven a moon-white strip of cloth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You laugh in your strength, for Hope o’erlays it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With shapes of love and beauty.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loom stops short! The pattern’s out!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’re alone in the room! You have woven a shroud!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hate of it lays you in it!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}