FIRST PART  
     UPON her plodding¹ palfrey
     With a heavy child at her breast
     And Joseph holding the bridle²
     They mount to the last hill-crest³.
 
     Dissatisfied and weary
     She sees the blade of the sea
     Dividing earth and heaven
     In a glitter of ecstasy⁴.
 
     Sudden a dark-faced stranger
     With his back to the sun, holds out
     His arms; so she lights from her palfrey
     And turns her round about.
 
     She has given the child to Joseph,
     Gone down to the flashing shore;
     And Joseph, shading his eyes with his hand,
     Stands watching evermore.
 
                 SECOND PART
 
     THE sea in the stones is singing,
     A woman binds⁵ her hair
     With yellow, frail⁶ sea-poppies,
     That shine as her fingers stir.
 
     While a naked man comes swiftly
     Like a spurt⁷ of white foam⁸ rent
     From the crest of a falling breaker,
     Over the poppies sent.
 
     He puts his surf-wet fingers
     Over her startled eyes,
     And asks if she sees the land, the land,
     The land of her glad surmise⁹.
 
                 THIRD PART
 
     AGAIN in her blue, blue mantle¹⁰
     Riding at Joseph's side,
     She says, "I went to Cythera,
     And woe¹¹ betide!"
 
     Her heart is a swinging cradle
     That holds the perfect child,
     But the shade on her forehead ill becomes
     A mother mild.
 
     So on with the slow, mean journey
     In the pride of humility¹²;
     Till they halt at a cliff on the edge of the land
     Over a sullen¹³ sea.
 
     While Joseph pitches the sleep-tent
     She goes far down to the shore
     To where a man in a heaving boat
     Waits............