O many a league for many a day they went, And some magician kind they were aware Delivered captive treasuries and spent His lavish store of beauty everywhere: Slim brazen towers that taught the sun to share Its shining he revealed; and odorous gloom Packing with odours the receiving air; Flowered silken sails that set the sea abloom; Isles spread with fabrics from the moon’s high loom. Sometimes the lady knelt in a fleet prow That flung the gaudy bubbles from the blue, And joyed to hear the lean blade of the bow Plunging the thundering sundered breakers through; Keen swept the foam-born breaths of salt, to do Sweet violence to her pale cheek; and all The spirit of her fancy peopled new The perilous sea’s impermanent citadel That kindled into spray with the ship’s rise and fall. Sometimes she stepped within a pillared way Dim grey with shade and honey-bright with sun Where all the costly stuffs for barter lay, And she might hear how many a drowsing one, Stretched on a pea-cock patterned skin, would run Soft syllable along soft syllable Praising the violet and vermilion Of gems and cloths, right eager-tongued to tell News musical with names to one who loved them well. Meanwhile the stranger knight was by her side Burning to serve and welcoming command; And never wish of hers might be denied For his swift sword was like a dexterous wand. And by her side in all that alien land The old nurse journeyed plaintive and perplexed, Condemning what she did not understand And with all other understanding vexed; Palsied and muttering charms for what should tide them next. Then it befell that as they fared the knight Forgot his weariness and many a morn He faced with joy the lottery of light And walked no more apart in mood forlorn. And now, her tremulous shyness half outworn, The Lady Margot oft passed through a town And saw therein but trinkets to adorn Her little bodice and her silken gown; And when he spoke she looked up swiftly and looked down. O sweet it was to see the two dream on. She wistful of the runes that he could teach Of men and cities dreamed that in such wan Delights lay life; and he for her sweet speech With all its faery fancies would beseech And dreamed that in such fancies lay delight! And all the time the heart of each for each Was calling with the ancient urge of night For night what time the lotus of the dawn is white.