DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0028
10
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
additional forces; and when the struggle with Ferrara
pressed hard upon the usual revenues of the state., they
not only cheerfully obeyed the first demands of the senate,
but offered their jewels, their gold and silver, and other
articles of luxury, to aid the cause of their country. And
thus supported by a deep, fearless, and unsparing policy
on the one side, and by so wise a patriotism on the other,
Venice might fairly hope to withstand every enemy,
whether spiritual or temporal—whether the banded
princes of Europe, or the fierce and ambitious Moslem.
But Columbus and Vasco de Gama humbled a power
which neither popes, princes, nor sultans could unsettle
or overthrow. Their discoveries tore away its pomp and
glory, as the diffusion of knowledge in a subsequent age
humbled those of Rome.
Thus did Venice rise,
Thus flourish, till the unwelcome tidings came,
That in the Tagus had arrived a fleet
From India, from the region of the Sun,
Fragrant with spices—that a way was found,
A channel opened, and the golden stream
Turned to enrich another. Then she felt
Her strength departing, yet awhile maintained
Her state, her splendour; till a tempest shook
All things most held in honour among men,
All things the giant with the scythe had spared,
To their foundations, and at once she fell;
She who had stood yet longer than the last
Of the Four Kingdoms—who, as in an Ark,
Had floated down, amid a thousand wrecks,
Uninjured, from the Old World to the New,
From the last glimpse of civilized life—to where
Light shone again, and with the blaze of noon.
Rogers.
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
additional forces; and when the struggle with Ferrara
pressed hard upon the usual revenues of the state., they
not only cheerfully obeyed the first demands of the senate,
but offered their jewels, their gold and silver, and other
articles of luxury, to aid the cause of their country. And
thus supported by a deep, fearless, and unsparing policy
on the one side, and by so wise a patriotism on the other,
Venice might fairly hope to withstand every enemy,
whether spiritual or temporal—whether the banded
princes of Europe, or the fierce and ambitious Moslem.
But Columbus and Vasco de Gama humbled a power
which neither popes, princes, nor sultans could unsettle
or overthrow. Their discoveries tore away its pomp and
glory, as the diffusion of knowledge in a subsequent age
humbled those of Rome.
Thus did Venice rise,
Thus flourish, till the unwelcome tidings came,
That in the Tagus had arrived a fleet
From India, from the region of the Sun,
Fragrant with spices—that a way was found,
A channel opened, and the golden stream
Turned to enrich another. Then she felt
Her strength departing, yet awhile maintained
Her state, her splendour; till a tempest shook
All things most held in honour among men,
All things the giant with the scythe had spared,
To their foundations, and at once she fell;
She who had stood yet longer than the last
Of the Four Kingdoms—who, as in an Ark,
Had floated down, amid a thousand wrecks,
Uninjured, from the Old World to the New,
From the last glimpse of civilized life—to where
Light shone again, and with the blaze of noon.
Rogers.