<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Venice</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"> IN domes of dim and ancient gold, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In cloisters, where the lightning plays,</p><p class="line">Where gleam the gorgeous saints of old </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In aisles of jade and chrysoprase, </p><p class="line">In halls that wave like waving water,</p><p class="line">Still moves the voice of Ocean's daughter.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Venice ! What siren music then </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Stirred on the shoals and shallow sea,</p><p class="line">When that small band of wandering men </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">First in their dreams imagined thee, </p><p class="line">And hung thy lyric splendour high</p><p class="line">Between the water and the sky!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What Triton strains in other days </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Were heard, when, on a sea of flame,</p><p class="line">Thy battlefleet swung through the haze,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And homeward in her glory came,</p><p class="line">Bearing the beauty of the East</p><p class="line">To make Thy happy saint a feast.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Now, though that sceptre-hand be cold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Those argent argosies no more</p><p class="line">Their Tyrian-tinted wings unfold</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From Cyprus unto Elsinore;</p><p class="line">With broken sword, and banner furled,</p><p class="line">How dies the Siren of the world?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The cloud has lifted from the stars,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And now again the starlight falls;</p><p class="line">Now Venus calls again to Mars,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And Bacchus reels about his halls</p><p class="line">And, lovely in a thousand forms,</p><p class="line">Our Lady drifts above the storms.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Among the moonlit marble lace,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That wreathes this avenue forlorn,</p><p class="line">Some God has made his dwelling place</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And takes his manna from the morn;</p><p class="line">And every young and wandering soul,</p><p class="line">That passes here, must pay its toll.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Far off the city fades away, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Save where one tow'r of rosy light, </p><p class="line">Like some dissolving shaft of day, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Pierces the bosom of the night:</p><p class="line">The distant lightning breaks its shroud:</p><p class="line">Valhalla gleams beyond the cloud.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Alone we float through gulfs remote,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The black canal no longer seen;</p><p class="line">My boat it is a fairy boat, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Above the ripple silver-green, </p><p class="line">Upon the wavelet violet-crowned,</p><p class="line">My boat and I are outward bound!</p></div></body></html> · Great War