Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Venice by Day
By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (18141902)T
Throned with the West, upon a waveless sea,
Her various-vested, resonant jubilee
Maintains, though Venice hath been bought and sold.
In their high stalls of azure and of gold
Yet stand, above the servile concourse free,
Those brazen steeds,—the Car of Victory
Hither from far Byzantium’s porch that rolled.
The wingéd Lions, Time’s dejected thralls,
Glare with furled plumes. The pictured shapes that glow
Like sunset clouds condensed upon the walls,
Still boast old wars, or feasts of long ago;
And still the sun his amplest glory pours
On all those swelling domes and watery floors.