To Miss ****, on Her Giving the Author a Gold and Silk Network Purse of Her Own Weaving
Though gold and silk their charms uniteTo make thy curious web delight,In vain the varied work would shine,If wrought by any hand but thine;Thy hand, that knows the subtler artTo weave those nets that catch the heart.
Spread out by me, the roving coinThy nets may catch, but not confine;Nor can I hope thy silken chainThe glitt'ring vagrants shall restrain.Why, Stella, was it then decreed,The heart, once caught, should ne'er be freed?
Words in this poem
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Miss ****, on Her Giving the Author a Gold and Silk Network Purse of Her Own Weaving is in the public domain. This text is taken from Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 (The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes, 1825), Project Gutenberg ebook #10835; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Samuel Johnson, To Miss ****, on Her Giving the Author a Gold and Silk Network Purse of Her Own Weaving, in Poems (1825), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10835, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-poems/to-miss-on-her-giving-the-author-a-gold-and-silk-network.html, id L27139.
Form and metre
To Miss ****, on Her Giving the Author a Gold and Silk Network Purse of Her Own Weaving is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCC uniteA · delightA · shineB · thineB · artC · heartC
- 2 AABBCC coinA · confineA · chainB · restrainB · decreedC · freedC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Though gold and silk their charms unite | 8 | ······/· |
| To make thy curious web delight, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| In vain the varied work would shine, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| If wrought by any hand but thine; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thy hand, that knows the subtler art | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To weave those nets that catch the heart. | 8 | ········ |
| Spread out by me, the roving coin | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy nets may catch, but not confine; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Nor can I hope thy silken chain | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The glitt'ring vagrants shall restrain. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Why, Stella, was it then decreed, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The heart, once caught, should ne'er be freed? | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.