The Thicket is Thorny
          Up snakes the glassy Tower
          Here is no sweet Dovecote
          Nor plump Lady's Bower

          The Wind whistles sourly
          Through that Sharp land
          At the black casement
          He sees her while hand

          He hears the foul Old One
          Call quavering there
          Rapunzel Rapunzel
          Let down your Hair

          Filaments Glosses
          Run trembling down
          Gold torrent loosened
          From a gold Crown

          The black claws go clutching
          Hand over hand
          What Pain goes shrilling
          Through every strand!

          Silent he watches
          The humped One rise
          With tears of anguish
          In his own eyes

          ------------

          Who are you?
          Here on a high shelf
          In  webbed flask I
          Hook up my folded self
          Bat-leather dry.

          Who were you?
          The gold god goaded me
          Sang shrieking sang high
          His heat corroded me
          Not mine his cry.

          What do you see?
          I saw the firmament
          Steady the sky
          I saw the cerement
          Close Caesar's eye.

          What do you hope?
          Desire is a dowsed fire
          True love a lie
          To a dusty shelf we aspire
          I crave to die.

          -Christabel LaMotte

          Possession, a Romance
          A. S. Byatt