The Poetical Works of David Gray A New and Enlarged Edition; Edited by Henry Glassford Bell |
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A Vision of Venice.
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 | The Poetical Works of David Gray |  |
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A Vision of Venice.
Behold! a waking vision crowns my soul
With beatific radiance, and the light
Of shining hope;—a golden-memoried dream
That clings unto my youth, as clung the strange
Leonine phantom to that mystic man,
Lean Paracelsus. It has grown with me
Like destiny, or that which seems to be
My destiny, ambition: and its glow
Inflames my fancy, as if some clear star
Had burst in silvery light within my brain.
From the smooth hyaline of that far sea
The pictured Adriatic rises, fair
As dream, a kingly-built and tower'd town;
Column and arch and architrave instinct
With delicatest beauty; overwrought
With tracery of interlacèd leaves
For ever blooming on white marble, hush'd
In everlasting summer, windless, cold:
The city of the Doges!
With beatific radiance, and the light
Of shining hope;—a golden-memoried dream
That clings unto my youth, as clung the strange
Leonine phantom to that mystic man,
Lean Paracelsus. It has grown with me
Like destiny, or that which seems to be
My destiny, ambition: and its glow
Inflames my fancy, as if some clear star
Had burst in silvery light within my brain.
From the smooth hyaline of that far sea
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As dream, a kingly-built and tower'd town;
Column and arch and architrave instinct
With delicatest beauty; overwrought
With tracery of interlacèd leaves
For ever blooming on white marble, hush'd
In everlasting summer, windless, cold:
The city of the Doges!
From the calm
Transparent waters float some thrilling sounds
Of Amphionic music, and the words
Are Tasso's, where he passions for his love,
That lady Florentine so lily-smooth,
Clothed on with haughtiness!
Transparent waters float some thrilling sounds
Of Amphionic music, and the words
Are Tasso's, where he passions for his love,
That lady Florentine so lily-smooth,
Clothed on with haughtiness!
At the black stair
Of palace rising shadowy from the wave,
Two singing gondolieri wait a freight
Of loveliness. A tremulous woman, robed
In dazzling satin, and whose dimpled arms,
And milky heaving breasts of living snow
Shine through their veil diaphanous, floats down
From the wide portal; and the ivory prow
Of the soft-cushion'd gondola (as she
Steps lightly from the marble to her place)
Dips, rises, dips again; then through the blue
Swift glides into the sunset.
Of palace rising shadowy from the wave,
Two singing gondolieri wait a freight
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In dazzling satin, and whose dimpled arms,
And milky heaving breasts of living snow
Shine through their veil diaphanous, floats down
From the wide portal; and the ivory prow
Of the soft-cushion'd gondola (as she
Steps lightly from the marble to her place)
Dips, rises, dips again; then through the blue
Swift glides into the sunset.
Oh, the glow
Of that rich sunset dims whate'er I see
In this my own dear valley! O'er the hills—
Those craggy Euganean hills, whose peaks
Wedge the clear crystalline—a blazonry
Of clouds pavilion'd, folded, interwound
Inextricably, load the breezeless west
With awe and glory. The effulgence gleams
Upon a vision'd Belmont, home of her
Who loved as Shakespeare's women do; and gleams
Upon those walls wherein Othello's spear
Stabb'd clinging innocence; where that poor wife,
The love-Cassandra Belvidera, gave
Her soul in martyrdom to love and woe.
Of that rich sunset dims whate'er I see
In this my own dear valley! O'er the hills—
Those craggy Euganean hills, whose peaks
Wedge the clear crystalline—a blazonry
Of clouds pavilion'd, folded, interwound
Inextricably, load the breezeless west
With awe and glory. The effulgence gleams
Upon a vision'd Belmont, home of her
Who loved as Shakespeare's women do; and gleams
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Stabb'd clinging innocence; where that poor wife,
The love-Cassandra Belvidera, gave
Her soul in martyrdom to love and woe.
And shall I never that far town behold,
Crested with sparkling columns, fiery towers,
Praxitelean masonry?—behold
Venice, the mart of nations, ere I die?
By Heaven! her common merchants princes were
Unto the continents; her traffickers
The honourable of the earth! She stood
A crownèd city, and the fawning sea
Licked her white feet; and the eternal sun
Kissed with departing beam her brow of snow!
Crested with sparkling columns, fiery towers,
Praxitelean masonry?—behold
Venice, the mart of nations, ere I die?
By Heaven! her common merchants princes were
Unto the continents; her traffickers
The honourable of the earth! She stood
A crownèd city, and the fawning sea
Licked her white feet; and the eternal sun
Kissed with departing beam her brow of snow!
Woe to this Venice, with her crown of pride!
The Lady of the kingdoms, the perfection
Of beauty, and the joy of the whole earth!
Through her pavilions shall the crannying winds
Whistle, and all her borders in the sea
Crumble their Parian wonder. Woe to her,
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower!
Her sober-suited nightingales, with notes
Of smooth liquidity and softened stops,
Solace the brakes; and 'mid her ancient streets
Tawny, the gleaming and harmonious sea
Makes silvery melody of bygone days.
O white Enchantment! Ocean-spouse of old!
When thy high battlements and bulging domes,
By sunset purpled, trembled in the wave!
Now o'er thy towers the Lord hath spread his hand,
And as a cottage shalt thou be removed;
Like Nineveh, or cloudy Babylon!
The Lady of the kingdoms, the perfection
Of beauty, and the joy of the whole earth!
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Whistle, and all her borders in the sea
Crumble their Parian wonder. Woe to her,
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower!
Her sober-suited nightingales, with notes
Of smooth liquidity and softened stops,
Solace the brakes; and 'mid her ancient streets
Tawny, the gleaming and harmonious sea
Makes silvery melody of bygone days.
O white Enchantment! Ocean-spouse of old!
When thy high battlements and bulging domes,
By sunset purpled, trembled in the wave!
Now o'er thy towers the Lord hath spread his hand,
And as a cottage shalt thou be removed;
Like Nineveh, or cloudy Babylon!
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