Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Venice | | Venice | | Sir Arthur Helps (1813–1875) |
| | (From Oulita, the Serf. Act IV. Scene II.)
VENICE, dear to every one | |
| Whose gracious star has led him to behold her; | |
| So dear that in the memory she remains, | |
| Like an old love, who would, indeed, have been | |
| Our only love, but died, and all the past | 5 |
| Is full of her untried perfections, while | |
| Amidst the unknown recesses of our hearts | |
| Enthroned she sits, in tenderest mist of thought, | |
| Like the soft brilliancy of autumn haze, | |
| Seen at the setting of the sun: and such | 10 |
| Is Venice,—to repeat her name is sweet, | |
| Just as I love to say the word Oulita. | |
| And then of the dark, swanlike gondolas | |
| We talked; and how, midst crumbling palaces, | |
| Great churches, richly inlaid mosques and columns, | 15 |
| Each step an ample field for history, | |
| And under bridges mossed with dripping sea-weed | |
| (A thousand silvery lights reflected from | |
| The rippling waters, upwards on the arches | |
| Playing fondly, like glad insects in the sun), | 20 |
| The dark-clad gondola went gurgling by, | |
| Its inmate lost in sweetest meditation,— | |
| Went gurgling by, went gurgling by. | | | | |
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