On a Brede of Divers Colours, Woven by Four Ladies
Twice twenty slender virgin-fingers twineThis curious web, where all their fancies shine.As Nature them, so they this shade have wrought,Soft as their hands, and various as their thought;Not Juno's bird when, his fair train dispread,He woos the female to his painted bed,No, not the bow, which so adorns the skies,So glorious is, or boasts so many dyes.
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.]
- dispread v. t.
- To spread abroad, or different ways; to spread apart; to open; as, the sun dispreads his beams. [Pref. dis- + spread.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On a Brede of Divers Colours, Woven by Four Ladies is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham, Project Gutenberg ebook #12322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Waller, On a Brede of Divers Colours, Woven by Four Ladies, in Poetical Works (1645–1668), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waller-denham/on-a-brede-of-divers-colours-woven-by-four-ladies.html, id L09057.
Form and metre
On a Brede of Divers Colours, Woven by Four Ladies is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDD twineA · shineA · wroughtB · thoughtB · dispreadC · bedC · skiesD · dyesD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Twice twenty slender virgin-fingers twine | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| This curious web, where all their fancies shine. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| As Nature them, so they this shade have wrought, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Soft as their hands, and various as their thought; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not Juno's bird when, his fair train dispread, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| He woos the female to his painted bed, | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| No, not the bow, which so adorns the skies, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| So glorious is, or boasts so many dyes. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
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.