| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | A Book of Sonnets | | Venice |
| | | WHITE swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest | |
| So wonderfully built among the reeds | |
| Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, | |
| As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest! | |
| White water-lily, cradled and caressed | 5 |
| By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds | |
| Lifting thy golden filaments and seeds, | |
| Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest! | |
| White phantom city, whose untrodden streets | |
| Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting | 10 |
| Shadows of palaces and strips of sky; | |
| I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets | |
| Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting | |
| In air their unsubstantial masonry. | | | | |
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