Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/93

Whether ye turn around the spacious wheel,
Or, patient-sitting, that revolve which forms
A narrower circle. On the brittle work 55
Point your quick eye, and let the hand assist
To guide and stretch the gently-lessening thread ;
Even, unknotted, twine will praise your skill.
A diff'rent spinning every different web
Asks from your glowing ringers ; some require 60
The more compact and some the looser wreath ;
The last for softness, to delight the touch
Of chamber'd delicacy : scarce the cirque
Need turn around, or twine the length'ning flake.
There are, to speed their labour, who prefer 65
Wheels double spol'd, which yield to either hand
A sev'ral line ; and many yet adhere
To th' ancient distaff, at the bosom fix'd,
Casting the whirling spindle as they walk :
At home, or in the sheepfold, or the mart, 70
Alike the work proceeds. This method still
Norvicum favours, and th' Icenian towns :
It yields their airy stuffs an apter thread.
This was of old, in no inglorious days,
The mode of spinning when th' Egyptian prince 75
A golden distaff gave that beauteous nymph,
Too-beauteous Helen ! no uncourtly gift
Then, when each gay diversion of the fair
Led to ingenious use. But patient art,
That on experience works, from hour to hour, 80
Sagacious, has a spiral engine form'd,
Which on an hundred spoles, an hundred threads,
With one huge wheel, by lapse of water, twines,
Few hands requiring , easy-tended work,
That copiously supplies the greedy loom. 85
Nor hence, ye Nymphs ! let anger cloud your brows;
The more is wrought the more is still requir'd :