Saturday Poetry

 On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic

                                  by

                     William Wordsworth

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,

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 to be paid

When her long life hath reached its final day:

Then we are, and must grieve when even the shade

Of that which once was great, is passed away.

                                                                 1802