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 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 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 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, 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 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, 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. Nor hence, ye Nymphs ! let anger cloud your brows; The more is wrought the more is still requir'd :