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(From Marino Faliero, Act IV, Scene I)
AROUND me are the stars and waters,— | |
| Worlds mirrored in the ocean, goodlier sight | |
| Than torches glared back by a gaudy glass; | |
| And the great element, which is to space | |
| What ocean is to earth, spreads its blue depths, | 5 |
| Softened with the first breathings of the spring; | |
| The high moon sails upon her beauteous way | |
| Serenely smoothing o’er the lofty walls | |
| Of those tall piles and sea-girt palaces, | |
| Whose porphyry pillars, and whose costly fronts, | 10 |
| Fraught with the orient spoil of many marbles, | |
| Like altars ranged along the broad canal, | |
| Seem each a trophy of some mighty deed | |
| Reared up from out the waters, scarce less strangely | |
| Than those more massy and mysterious giants | 15 |
| Of architecture, those Titanian fabrics, | |
| Which point in Egypt’s plains to times that have | |
| No other record. All is gentle: naught | |
| Stirs rudely; but, congenial with the night, | |
| Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit. | 20 |
| The tinklings of some vigilant guitars | |
| Of sleepless lovers to a wakeful mistress, | |
| And cautious opening of the casement, showing | |
| That he is not unheard; while her young hand, | |
| Fair as the moonlight of which it seems part, | 25 |
| So delicately white, it trembles in | |
| The act of opening the forbidden lattice, | |
| To let in love through music, makes his heart | |
| Thrill like his lyre-strings at the sight; the dash | |
| Phosphoric of the oar, or rapid twinkle | 30 |
| Of the far lights of skimming gondolas, | |
| And the responsive voices of the choir | |
| Of boatmen answering back with verse for verse; | |
| Some dusky shadow checkering the Rialto, | |
| Some glimmering palace roof, or tapering spire, | 35 |
| Are all the sights and sounds which here pervade | |
| The ocean-born and earth-commanding city. | |
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