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LI. THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA.
Oh, thou old heartless Sea, without a tideTo bless thee with its changing! Ah, poor Sea!
How idly beat thy waves, how languidly
On Baiæ's piers, or Adria's level side!
Eternal sunset round old Greece doth play:
All faint and wan Rome's last imperial smile
Yet lingers in each Hellespontine bay.
Still at his mouths the melancholy Nile
Talks to himself of Egypt's kingly day.
A belt of goodly towns have ruins hoar,
Silent as tombs, on Libya's blighted shore;
And Venice woos her blue canals no more:
Yet for all this no heart is in thy waves,
Thou heavy Sea of shadows and of graves!
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