Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Torcello, the Island | | Torcello | | Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) |
| | | SHORT sail from Venice sad Torcello lies, | |
| Deserted island, low and still and green. | |
| Before fair Venice was a bride and queen | |
| Torcello’s court was held in fairer guise | |
| Than Doges knew. To-day death-vapors rise | 5 |
| From fields where once her palaces were seen, | |
| And in her silent towers that crumbling lean | |
| Unterrified the brooding swallow flies. | |
| O once-loved friend, who dost in vain implore | |
| My presence, thou art like Torcello’s land. | 10 |
| Thy wasted life to me seems life no more. | |
| With all its beauty death goes hand in hand, | |
| I shrink from thee, as on its blighted strand | |
| Torcello’s ghosts might turn and fly the shore. | | | | |
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