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| IN Ortygia the Dawn land the old gods dwell, | |
| And the silver’s yet a-quiver on the old wizard well | |
| By the milk-white walls of the Temple of the Moon, | |
| Where the Dawn Maids hallow the red gods’ tune, | |
| And old grey Time is a nine-year child, | 5 |
| Back between the rivers ere man was ever ’guiled, | |
| Or the knelling ‘Never, never!’ by the cherubim was rung. | |
| It was there, there, there, in Ortygia the young,— | |
| It was there, there, there, in the meadows of the sky | |
| That first we went a-summering, my love of loves and I. | 10 |
| And well I wot the pleasaunce for them that thither go | |
| Is litten with the beacons that the Dawn Maids know, | |
| With their vigil at end in the Temple of the Moon, | |
| And their prayer all prayer for the waked world’s boon. | |
| The words they speak in that land are new as the dawn; | 15 |
| The rills that run in that land are diamond, drawn | |
| From the old wizard well where the red gods croon. | |
| And walk you in Ortygia or late or soon, | |
| It is but lovers only that ever you will see; | |
| For every silver wood-king’s a trysting tree, | 20 |
| And the dream-flowers are keeping their first high May | |
| For the glad and the glamoured who walk yon way; | |
| And to the summit etherous the track you cannot miss, | |
| Though the hills are dim and sheeny with the rainbow’s kiss. | |
| O, we walked the road of iris, my love of loves and I | 25 |
| In Ortygia the young with the red gods by! | |
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