Shawls

Shawls represent protection. The image in the poem is of a woman draping a shawl around her shoulders. This creates a sense of warmth and safety.

Lace

Lace represents delicate beauty. Lace has to be woven by hand and requires many hours of delicate labor, almost always by women. It symbolizes the easily damaged but still valuable beauty associated with womanhood.

Crimson

The color crimson, a shade of bright red, symbolizes sexual desire. The color red is historically associated with lust and desire because of its vibrancy. In this poem, it is also associated with the stomach, which was a highly sexualized part of the body in early modern literature.

Waves

Waves symbolize natural change and variation. Both petticoats and ribbons are compared to waves, representing the power of these objects – when set free from their bounds – to execute change in people.