Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Venice in the Evening
By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)A
And flush of modern pleasure, dull Decay
O’er the bright pageant breathes her shadowy gray.
As on from bridge to bridge I roam and climb,
It seems as though some wonder-working chime
(Whose spell the vision raised and still can sway)
To some far source were ebbing fast away;
As though, by man unheard, with voice sublime
It bade the sea-born Queen of Cities follow
Her sire into his watery realm far down,—
Beneath my feet the courts sound vast and hollow;
And more than evening’s darkness seems to frown
On sable barks that, swift yet trackless, fleet
Like dreams o’er dim lagune and watery street.