Analysis of Ortygia

Jessie Mackay 1864 (Rakaia Gorge) – 1938 (Christchurch)



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,           
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.           
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;           
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,           
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           
In Ortygia the young with the red gods by!


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFBBGGBBHHIIJJEE
Poetic Form
Metre 010110111 00101010101101 101111010101 1011100111 011110111 101010111101 101101010111 111110101 11111001101 111101111101 01110111111 110101010111 1110110010101 0111110111 011101111101 01110111101 10110110111 011011111 1111010110111 11001011011 001101101111 1010011111 010101011101 10111011011 11101110111101 010110111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,442
Words 262
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 39
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,022
Words per stanza (avg) 258
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:18 min read
55

Jessie Mackay

Jessie Mackay (1864 in Rakaia Gorge – 23 August 1938, in Christchurch) was a New Zealand poet and animal rights activist. more…

All Jessie Mackay poems | Jessie Mackay Books

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