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I Woke and Found Life Was Duty

These pillow cases were part of my haul of vintage linen goodies I got from our guild’s rummage sale.  When I opened the baggie these were in I just gasped.  As a pair, they are so fabulous.

I found that these were stamped pillow shams offered in the Sears Roebuck catalog in 1897.  They were originally $.23,  if you can believe that!  I thought that the embroidery on these were done exceptionally well, as I have seen some versions online in a less refined manner. 

I think these are very telling about the average woman’s life in late Victorian/early Edwardian days.  Most women worked either in the home or in a trade of some sort, and while dreaming is indeed beautiful, one must wake and return to their duties.  This is from a poem by Ellen Sturgis Hooper, A Transcendental poet, who published it in The Dial in 1840. 

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The original poem the pattern is based on:

I Slept, and Dreamed that Life was Beauty
By Ellen Sturgis Hooper

I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noonday light and truth to thee.

The Dial (July 1840) p. 123