Lay of Kushta, Sonnet 30
Taraf was a physical house of great beauty rare
Alabaster colonnades and gardens without walls
And gushing fountains besides. It had five flawless levels
And a hundred rooms among pavilions. The nobles there
Exercis’d authority for miles around, and to all
Accounts to good effect. Their estates blossom’d, their revels
Famous but not infamous, lively but never effete,
Angela, head of house, majestic queen, had shown her skill
With effective management through her many willing sons.
These sons did ride out unarmed to Edmund and him did greet,
And as a bevy rode in together. Yet Edmund still
Ponder’d, for though graceful enough, his family were prideful ones.
He went to his brother Abner alone when it seem’d wise
To hear what counsel his elder sibling might him advise.