Sentence:  You  hold the <WSD>skein</WSD>: wind, Thomas, wind / The thread of eternal life and death. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (gathering of yarn etc) A quantity of yarn, thread, or the like, put up together, after it is taken from the reel. A skein of cotton yarn is formed by eighty turns of the thread around a fifty-four inch reel.