Notes
2] Distaff: “A cleft staff about 3 feet long, on which … wool or flax was wound. It was held under the left arm, and the fibres of the material were drawn from it through the fingers of the left hand, and twisted spirally by the forefinger and thumb of the right, with the aid of the suspended spindle, round which the thread, as it was twisted or spun, was wound” (OED “distaff” 1).
3] Flyers: later in machine spinning, the flyer twisted the thread as it led it to the bobbin and wound it therein (OED “flyer, flier” 3e).
8] quills: stems on which yarn is wound.
10] Fulling Mills: a mill where wooden hammers beat cloth and fuller’s earth (soap) cleans it.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text:
Publication date note: Text: The Poems of Edward Taylor, ed. Donald E. Stanford with a forward by Louis L. Martz (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960): 467.
First published: The poetical works of Edward Taylor, ed. Thomas Johnson (New York: Rockland editions, 1939): 116.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition:
Recent editing: 1:2004/7/7