Sonnet I
Dreaming from my tower in the air
Higher than the trees surrounding close
Wondering if men would find me fair,
Footsteps down below break my repose
The mist about my window hinders me
From viewing who would enter in my court
But so few visitors I chance to see,
Intent I am on making my report
And tuning my sweet song towards the earth,
I'll change my fate, which left me here since birth.
Sonnet II
Six notes only had I sounded when
The footsteps came nearer my prison wall
Trembled I, yet sounded them again
And from what seemed the pit of earth heard call
A voice quite different from those I had heard
Though I could count that number on one hand
My lips too dry to speak a single word,
I wondered why I had not better planned
And tried in vain to step back from the sill
For something held my hair and kept me still.
Sonnet III
I tried to scream but sound I could not make
My frightened wit had robbed me of my speech
I thought of how my tresses I might break,
But spied the scissors just beyond my reach
Frantically I fumbled through my skirts,
Searching for my dagger in the fold
The same I used for tearing linen shirts
And as I knew not what of me had hold,
To sacrifice my braids I raised my knife
Too late! I now must kill to save my life.
Sonnet IV
My point directed at the stranger's chin,
No time was left for severing his rope
But shall I murder him or let him in?
I was too stunned at what I saw to hope
For some salvation. I knew I was lost
Whichever was my choice it mattered not
The mist had cleared, my innocence the cost
And for one endless moment I was wrought
Of human flesh and human cares and fears
The fantasy of fables read for years.
Sonnet V
A face it was, yea, had it lips and eyes,
But unlike that which greets me in the glass
In its twin orbs I saw no less surprise
And so we stood, two statues made of brass
I gazing in his eyes and he in mine
As though we might have read each other's thought
sHe smiled slowly as one drunk with wine
When suddenly the forest rang with shots
The hunters oft' before had come too near,
And so I bid adieu to all my fear.