Erotica/The Sleeping Beauty

by Arthur Clark Kennedy

The Sleeping Beauty

She slept whilst chains of servitudeWere round her rivetted,Her palace walls were hung aboutWith cere-cloths of the dead,The rank weeds sprang within her courts,Wild briars fenced her gate;For seven long years the spell had worked—Comes then the Prince too late?

Lo! from her fair limbs fall the chains,The rank weeds fade away;Her Prince awakes her with a kissAnd knowledge brings the day.