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