The Serpent of the White Rose (2)

Though I did not hear of him for a long time
I was untroubled, dreaming among the bees
In the warm sun of amorous pleasure, of the time
To come. Or in autumn rain I'd walk among trees
Of the greenwood, given to silence, filled with time.
The serpent slept inside, and I was at peace.

Gone far in love, milk white and rosy I stood
Among the lambs, carrying water, marveling
That fortune had brought him to me out of the greenwood
As I had dreamed. "My sister," he said, smiling,
"Give water," and dismounting, "With a kiss," he said.
I kissed him, my body waking, the water spilling.

He delighted an hour or more, kissing and playing,
While I spoke of love too foolishly and soon--
How virtuously I'd lived, for him obeying
A governing vision--my husband as the son
Or the king. "Sweet innocent."" e mounted saying,
"A pretty tale, Believe me," Then he was gone.

Light hours I idled, given over to dream,
While my father's eyes shone on me as if he knew,
And when one day he asked me whether he had come
Whome I could love, I answered that it was true.
And in happy candor I told him my waking dream.
But my father sighed. "The Prince has not come for wooing.

Later the snow came, and I had a change of temper,
Closed up with an old man in a small house all winter,
Wanting to go to the castle and take my lover,
My father called it a summertime game. "Give over.
The time to believe a prince's promise is never.
He will not marry a shepherdess. Set your eyes lower."

Quiet, old man, "I cried, and turned away
Hiding the tears of shame. And always fell
The snow, drifting in silent skies to alley
The doubt. Come a frozen night and a traveler's tale
Repeated before the fire. Fragments of heartsay
Restored belief my fantasy had been real.

"A rumor is running," he said. "that the again king,
Wanting a wife for the Prince, tried to send him abroad
To find herm and he encountered a monstrous thing--
A crowned serpent crying at every crossroad,
'I am your elder brother, heir to the king.
Get me a bride before you take a bride,'"

Back of this lay a tale chat in her need,
Our queen, having been childress many years,
Was counseled by an old woman to plant two seeds
Under a cup. From these would grow two flowers:
A white tose for a girl; for a boy, red.
She was to eat one, one only, and she would bear.

Wo, though she doubted the witch, she had done, but failed
In the end, by eating bothe, for she could not choose,
In time she had borne the Serpent, of the white rose,
Who gave to her an envernomed kiss, uncoiled
In fine, green rings and slid away to the snows.

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