Agony (reprise)

High in a tower—
Like yours was, but higher—
A beauty asleep
All 'round the tower
A thicket of briar
A hundred feet deep
Agony! No frustration more keen
When the one thing you want
Is a thing that you’ve not even seen
I’ve found a casket
Entirely of glass—
No, it’s unbreakable
Inside—don't ask it—
A maiden, alas
Just as unwakeable
What unmistakable agony!
Is the way always barred?
She has skin white as snow—
Did you learn her name?
No, there’s a dwarf standing guard
Agony! Such that princes must weep!
Always in thrall most
To anything almost
Or something asleep
If it were not for the thicket—
A thicket’s no trick. Is it thick?
It’s the thickest
The quickest is pick it apart with a stick—
Yes, but even one prick—
It’s my thing about blood
Well, it’s sick!
It’s no sicker than your thing with dwarves
Dwarfs
Dwarfs…
Dwarfs are very upsetting
Not forgetting the task’s unachievable
Mountains unscalable—
If it’s conceivable
But unavailable
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah—
Agony!
Misery!
Woe!
Not to know what you miss
While they lie there for years—
And you cry on their biers—
What unbearable bliss!
Agony, that can cut like a knife!
Ah well, back to my wife…