Crabbit Old Woman

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Crabbit Old Woman is a poem by Phyllis McCormack.

First published in 1973 in Chris Searle's (ed) anthology of poetry Elders, the poem was without title and also without attribution. Subsequently, a wealth of urban legend has sprung up surrounding this humble work. Most of the legend associated with this poem attributes it to a senile elderly woman in a Dundee nursing home, where a nurse found it while packing her belongings following her death.

According to an article from the Daily Mail on 12 March 1998, Phyllis McCormack's son claims that his mother wrote it while working at the Sunnyside Hospital in Montrose in the 1960's, where she submitted it anonymously to a small magazine intended just for Sunnyside with the title "Look Closer Nurse". It is also included in the Edexcel IGCSE poetry anthology.

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?

Are you thinking, when you look at me-

A crabbit old woman, not very wise,

Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes,

Who dribbles her food and makes no reply,

When you say in a loud voice,

"I do wish you'd try."

Who seems not to notice the things that you do

And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.

Who, quite unresisting, lets you do as you will

With bathing and feeding the long day is fill.

Is that what you're thinking,

Is that what you see?

Then open your eyes,

nurses, you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am, as I sit here so still!

As I move at your bidding, as I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of 10 with a father and mother,

Brothers and sisters, who loved one another-

A young girl of 16 with wings on her feet,

Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet,

A bride soon at 20- my heart gives a leap,

Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.

At 25 now I have young of my own

Who need me to build a secure happy home;

A woman of 30, my young now grow fast,

Bound to each other with ties that should last;

At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone,

But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn;

At 50 once more babies play around my knee,

Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,

I look at the future, I shudder with dread,

For my young are all rearing young of their own.

And I think of the years and the love that I've known;

I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel-

'Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.

The body is crumbled, grace and vigor depart,

There is now a stone where I once had a heart,

But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells,

And now and again my battered heart swells,

I remember the joy, I remember the pain,

And I'm loving and living life over again.

I think of the years all too few- gone too fast.

And accept the stark fact that nothing can last-

So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,

Not a crabbit old woman, look closer-

See ME.