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, it had 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 thoughts He 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 Sonnet VI Hardly knowing half of what I did But well aware the half I knew was mad I grasped his arms as virtue may forbid And pulled the creature with what strength I had Into the chamber To the floor we fell Then scrambled I To my poniard retrieve And asked him now At death's third door To tell Why cam'st he hence And bade him not deceive For if he should be false Despite his beauty Though I be fooled My dagger knew its duty Sonnet VII His lips then moved But not a sound was heard I saw them As two petals from a rose When finally He was fit to say a word I was content examining his nose He made some mention Of a songbird's tune I was not listening But o'erlooked his brow He claimed He would have climbed up to the moon I wished to give him peace But knew not how He had not thought his rope a maiden's hair Upon my life I found the creature fair! Sonnet VIII The deed explained He begged of me my name "Rapunzel" I replied "A man thou art?" "I am" The creature laughed "The very same How long hast thou been kept from life Apart?" I told him how For one and twenty years My home had been the walls He saw around me How no amount of pleading Nor no tears Have gained a visitor Until he found me But when I think upon it I recall For staring He did not hear me at all Sonnet IX It seemed to me We may as well not speak His eyes had gone As cloudy as the day He asked if he might Come again that week And I knew He must soon be gone away He took my hands And pressed them in his own As if by doing so He should stay longer He told me of the world I might have known Vowing to return And slay my wronger Then promising no harm His head he bent And kissed my lips Then out the sill he went Sonnet X Lowering himself As he had come Through the mist My creature disappeared Riding back To all that he was from And all that I could never be I feared And yet What raven locks fell 'round his face What gentle eyes As gray as seagulls wings A voice so soft My words cannot replace The memory Of a thousand lovely things And so I'll dream again Of arms more sweet The dagger I had dropped Lies at my feet