Rapunzel Sonnets Songtext / Lyric

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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