Elizabeth J. Coatsworth

From “Vermilion Seals”

PRINCE SUNG built Tsheng-leng tower

From which he might espy

Dame Sik of the smoke-like hair

And willow waist, go by.

When the moon looked full at the sun

In the month that the asters flower,

Prince Sung bade them bring Dame Sik

Into his gay tiled tower.

“Give thy handmaid leave to bathe

And change her unworthy dress;

She will serve thee with napkin and comb,

As befits thy worshipfulness.”

She bathed and changed her robes,

In a warm slow autumn hour.

She smiled in the face of Prince Sung,

And leapt from the top of the tower.