A man who uses a metaphor for himself in the form of a sailboat spies a woman who entrances. She is trapped by her physical world, while the speaker is trapped by the memory of someone he loved before, whom he calls "Guinevere." In the first stanza, he sees a woman he is smitten by, but who seems not to notice him. In the second stanza, she notices him and is drawn into his self-metaphor. In the third and last stanza, he believes that she has become interested in her. This poem is a story about growing attraction between a man and a woman, and a love that will free them both. .

             In the first stanza, the speaker is immediately struck by how the woman he has noticed looks like his fantasy of Guinevere, who represents an ideal woman to her. He remembers Guinevere enjoying the beauties of nature but in a very constricted way, walking through a garden with orange trees and peacocks – a cultivated place. Each stanza contains some reference to water. In this one, she chooses to take her walk after it has rained. The speaker cannot understand why this woman does not see her, but her view isn"t wide enough yet to notice him. Her vision is constricted by where she is.

             In the second stanza, he sees a mystical quality in both the woman he has noticed and the Guinevere of his memory or imagination. The new woman "draws pentagrams," which represents the spell a woman can throw over him. This woman wants to find someone, possibly the speaker. The speaker sees a woman who should be seeing beyond her garden wall to the wider world, and she does. She looks down the hill and metaphorically sees the man as he sees himself, a sailboat anchored at this place only for a short time. If she does not pursue him now, he will sail away to search for his Guinevere somewhere else. However, the speaker believes that they will join each other. She will be free to sail with him. This time the water reference is the harbor where the speaker, as a handsome sailboat, lays at anchor – but not for long.