Emily Dickinson Lexicon

brocade, n. [It. broccato, cloth of gold or silver; NW says “pamphlet or stitched book.”] (webplay: gold).

Embroidered textile; elaborate fabric with metallic threads; silk stuff variegated with gold and silver; cloth from India with patterns of raised flowers, foliage, or other ornaments; [fig.] poetry; handwritten text; intricate metrical composition; (see “truth, like ancestors' brocades, can stand alone” in Eliot's Mill on the Floss).