These idle words I speak are vain,

Wrung forth by love's consuming pain,

And ne'er of Rávaṇ be it said

He wooed a dame with prostrate head.”

Thus to the Maithil lady sued

The monarch of the giant brood,

And “She is now mine own,” he thought,

In Death's dire coils already caught.

Canto LVI. Sítá's Disdain.