On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic
William Wordsworth · 1807
Public domain
From The Golden Treasury, selected by Francis Turner Palgrave. William Wordsworth. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
Once did She hold the gorgeous East in fee
And was the safeguard of the West; the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest child of liberty.
She was a maiden city, bright and free;
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And when she took unto herself a mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea.
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay,--
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid
When her long life hath reach'd its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade
Of that which once was great has pass'd away.