DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0082
58
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
their expeditions, begun in a spirit of the most dispas-
sionate policy, they became a community which realized,
in the magnificence of its habits, the pomp of its cere-
monies, and the far-stretching influence of its sceptre,
some of the most brilliant dreams of romance. In the
fine lines of one of Italy’s most classic tourists, familiar
with each ancient spot as household words, and a poet
whose genius seems to glow only the brighter with the
flight of time,—
Like the water-fowl,
They built their nests among the ocean-waves;
And where the sands were shifting, as the wind
Blew from the north or south—where they that came,
Had to make sure the ground they stood upon,
Rose, like an exhalation from the deep,
A vast metropolis, with glistering spires,
With theatres, basilicas adorn’d;
A scene of light and glory, a dominion,
That has endured the longest among men.
“ And whence the talisman whereby she rose,
Towering? ’twas found there in the barren sea.
Want led to enterprise; and, far or near,
Who met not the Venetian ?—now among
The 2Egean isles, steering from port to port,
Landing and bartering; now, no stranger there,
In Cairo, or without the eastern gate,
Ere yet the cafila came, listening to hear
Its bells, approaching from the Red Sea coast;
Then on the Euxine, and that smaller sea
Of Asoph, in close converse with the Russ
And Tartar; on his lowly deck receiving
Pearls from the Persian Gulf, gems from Golcond;
Eyes brighter yet, that shed the fight of love,
From Georgia, from Circassia. Wandering round,
When in the rich bazaar he saw, display’d,
Treasures from climes unknown, he asked and learnt,
And, travelling slowly upward, drew, ere long,
THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL.
their expeditions, begun in a spirit of the most dispas-
sionate policy, they became a community which realized,
in the magnificence of its habits, the pomp of its cere-
monies, and the far-stretching influence of its sceptre,
some of the most brilliant dreams of romance. In the
fine lines of one of Italy’s most classic tourists, familiar
with each ancient spot as household words, and a poet
whose genius seems to glow only the brighter with the
flight of time,—
Like the water-fowl,
They built their nests among the ocean-waves;
And where the sands were shifting, as the wind
Blew from the north or south—where they that came,
Had to make sure the ground they stood upon,
Rose, like an exhalation from the deep,
A vast metropolis, with glistering spires,
With theatres, basilicas adorn’d;
A scene of light and glory, a dominion,
That has endured the longest among men.
“ And whence the talisman whereby she rose,
Towering? ’twas found there in the barren sea.
Want led to enterprise; and, far or near,
Who met not the Venetian ?—now among
The 2Egean isles, steering from port to port,
Landing and bartering; now, no stranger there,
In Cairo, or without the eastern gate,
Ere yet the cafila came, listening to hear
Its bells, approaching from the Red Sea coast;
Then on the Euxine, and that smaller sea
Of Asoph, in close converse with the Russ
And Tartar; on his lowly deck receiving
Pearls from the Persian Gulf, gems from Golcond;
Eyes brighter yet, that shed the fight of love,
From Georgia, from Circassia. Wandering round,
When in the rich bazaar he saw, display’d,
Treasures from climes unknown, he asked and learnt,
And, travelling slowly upward, drew, ere long,