A graceless doom it seems that bids us grieve: Venice and winter, hand in deadly hand, Have slain the lover of her sunbright strand And singer of a stormbright Christmas Eve. A graceless guerdon we that loved receive For all our love, from that the dearest land Love worshipped ever. Blithe and soft and bland, Too fair for storm to scathe or fire to cleave, Shone on our dreams and memories evermore The domes, the towers, the mountains and the shore That gird or guard thee, Venice: cold and black Seems now the face we loved as he of yore. We have given thee love -- no stint, no stay, no lack: What gift, what gift is this thou hast given us back? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHARLES CARVILLE'S EYES by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON HUMAN LIFE: ON THE DENIAL OF IMMORTALITY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE MY SWEET BROWN GAL by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE OLD GREY MARE by MOTHER GOOSE COLONIAL SET by ALFRED GOLDSWORTHY BAILEY TO MR. BOWRING ON HIS POETICAL TRANSLATIONS by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |