On St. Crispin's Day by Ruth Collie
"On St. Crispin's Day" is a short lyric poem in which the speaker wishes to become a shoemaker for the feast day of Saint Crispin, patron saint of shoemakers, cobblers, and leatherworkers. The speaker imagines praying to Crispin for a gift of leather sent down by angels, drawing on old legends that angels once supplied the saint with hides for his craft. This angelic leather is described as extraordinarily fine: soft, close-grained, cured not by ordinary means but by sunlight and rain, and given freely rather than bought or sold. The poem catalogs the imagined colors of these heavenly hides — sky-blue, pearl-grey tinged with the pink of dawn, and a bold crimson like a fresh sunset — turning the act of tanning leather into a celestial, almost painterly image. In the poem's closing turn, the speaker pictures taking this gifted leather and using it to fashion an abundance of small shoes for "dimpled feet," evoking children as the intended wearers. The final image places Saint Crispin himself at the speaker's side, blessing the tools of the trade — the last (the shoemaker's foot-shaped form) and the awl (the piercing tool) — as the work is done. The poem thus blends devotional reverence for a patron saint with the humble, tactile craft of shoemaking, elevating ordinary manual labor into something touched by grace. Its tone is wistful and admiring, framed as a wish ("I'd love to be...") rather than an account of actual events, and it uses rich sensory and color imagery to transform a workaday trade into a small act of wonder and piety.
By Ruth Collie · First published 1929 · Genre: Poetry, Religious Fiction, Fantasy · 184 words
First lines
I'd love to be a shoemaker on this Saint Crispin's Day. I'd pray him / for some leather that the angels gave away. (For they used to give / him leather, so all the legends say.) Softest leather from the / angels! Each piece of finest grain, well tanned by golden sunbeams, / kept moist by sister rain. The loveliest bits of leather, ne'er / bought nor sold for gain. Bright bits supplied by angels! And some / would be sky-blue and some of pearly greyness with dawn's pinkness / blushing through. And some would be rich crimson, like a sunset bold / and new. And I'd take Saint Crispin's leather that the angels had / let fall and fashion shoes a-plenty for dimpled feet and small, / whilst Saint Crispin stood beside me and blessed my last and awl!
What this Textopian page supports
On St. Crispin's Day is listed on Textopian as a poem by Ruth Collie, dated 1929 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Ruth Collie
- Date: 1929 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Religious Fiction, Fantasy, Children's Literature, Literary Fiction
- Length: 184 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for On St. Crispin's Day by Ruth Collie
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Poetry — The work is structured in verse form with rhyming couplets, rhythmic cadence, and lyrical language characteristic of traditional poetry.
- Religious Fiction — Centered on Saint Crispin (patron saint of shoemakers), angels, prayer, and divine blessing as central narrative and thematic elements.
- Fantasy — Features supernatural elements including angels dispensing magically-tinted leather with divine properties and heavenly intervention in earthly craftsmanship.
- Children's Literature — Employs whimsical tone, accessible language, gentle pastoral imagery including dimpled feet, and dreamlike quality that appeals to young readers.
Tags
historical fiction · medieval England · Hundred Years' War · Battle of Agincourt · fifteenth century · King Henry V · English history · France · soldiers · warfare · chivalry · archery