that England has acquired something more than a pe army and a suspended Habeas Corpus; it is enough for look at home. For what they have done abroad, and es in the South, "Verily they will have their reward," a very distant period. Wishing you, my dear Hobhouse, a safe and agreeabl to that country whose real welfare can be dearer to none yourself, I dedicate to you this poem in its completed stat repea' once more how truly I am ever, Your obliged And affectionate frien CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. CANTO THE FOURTH. I. I STOOD in Venice, on the Bridge of sighs; (') I saw from out the wave her structures rise O'er the fa...nies, when many a subject land Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles! II. She looks a sea-Cybele, fresh from ocean, (2) Rising with her tiara of proud towers At airy distance, with majestic motion, A ruler of the waters and their powers: And such she was; - her daughters had their dowers Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased. III. In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more, (3) The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy! (1) See "Historical Notes" at the end of this Canto, No. I. (2) An old writer, describing the appearance of Venice, has made use of the above image, which would not be poetical were it not true. Quo fit ut qui superne urbem contempletur, turritam telluris imagınem medio Oceano figuratam se putet inspicere." (3) See" Historical Notes" at the end of this Canto, No. II. * Marci Antonii Sabelli de Veneta Urbis situ narratio, edit. Taurin. 1527, lib. ifol. 202. IV. But unto us she hath a spell beyond Her name in story, and her long array Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despon Above the dogeless city's vanish'd sway; Ours is a trophy which will not decay With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor, And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away The keystones of the arch! though all were o'er For us repeopled were the solitary shore. V. The beings of the mind are not of clay, And multiply in us a brighter ray And more beloved existence; that which fate Of mortal bondage, by these spirits supplied Watering the heart whose early flowers have died, And with a fresher growth replenishing the void. VI. Such is the refuge of our youth and age, And the strange constellations which the Muse VII. I saw or dream'd of such, - but let them goThey came like truth, and disappear'd like dreams And whatsoe'er they were are now but so: I could replace them if I would; still teems; My mind with many a form which aptly seems Such as I sought for, and at moments found; Let these too go for waking Reason deems Such over-weening phantasies unsound, And other voices speak, and other sighs surround. VIII. I've taught me other tongues IX. Perhaps I loved it well; and should I lay If my fame should be, as my fortunes are, X. My name from out the temple where the dead 、 I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed. XI. The spouseless Adriatic mourns her lord; (1) The answer of the mother of Brasidas to the strangers who praised tne memory of her son (2) See "Historical Notes," No. III. XII. The Suabian sued, and now the Austrian reigns An Emperor tramples where an Emperor knelt; Kingdoms are shrunk to provinces, and chains Clank over sceptred cities; nations melt From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt The sunshine for a while, and downward go Like lauwine loosen'd from the mountain's belt; Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo ! (2) Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe. XIII. Before St. Mark still glow his steeds of brass, Their gilded collars glittering in the sun; But is not Doria's menace come to pass? (3) Are they not bridled? - Venice, lost and won, Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done, Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose! Better be whelm'd beneath the waves, and shun, Even in aestruction's depth, her foreign foes, From whom submission wrings an infamous repose. XIV. In youth she was all glory, -a new Tyre, Her very by-word sprung from victory, The Pianter of the Lion," (") which through fire And blood she bore o'er subject earth and sea; Though making many slaves, herself still free, And Eurore's bulwark 'gainst the Ottomite; Witness Trov's rival, Candia! Vouch it, ye Immortal waves that saw Lepanto's fight! For ye are names no time nor tyranny can blight. XV. Statues of glass all shiver'd the long file Of her dead Doges are declined to dust; But where they dwelt, the vast and sumptuous pile Bespeaks the pageant of their splendid trust; Their sceptre broken, and their sword in rust, Have yielded to the stranger: empty halls, Thin streets, and foreign aspects, such as must Too oft remind her who and what enthrals, (5) Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lovely wall (1, 2, 3, 5) See "Historical Notes." Nos. IV. V. VI. VII. (4) Plant the Lion—that is, the Lion of St. Mark the standard of which is the origin of the word Pantaloon-Piantaleone, Pantaleon, Pant |