LXXIII.

Bright as that fairy vision of the wave,

Raised by the magic of Morgana’s wand,[44]

On summer seas that undulating lave

Romantic Sicily’s Arcadian strand;

That pictured scene of airy colonnades,

Light palaces, in shadowy glory drest,

Enchanted groves, and temples, and arcades,

Gleaming and floating on the ocean’s breast;

Athens! thus fair the dream of thee appears,

As Fancy’s eye pervades the veiling cloud of years.