The boat draws away from the Riva. The great bronze horses mingle their outlines with the distant mountains. Dim gold, subdued green-gold, flashing faintly to the faint, bright peaks above them. Granite and metal, earth over water. Down the canal, old, beautiful horses, pride of Venice, of Constantinople, of Rome. Wars bite you with their little flames and pass away, but roses and oleanders strew their petals before your going, and you move like a constellation in a space of crimson stars.
So the horses float along the canal, between barred and shuttered palaces, splendid against marble walls in the fire of the sun.
Printed in the United States of America.
Books by AMY LOWELL
PUBLISHED BY
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Poetry
WHAT'S O'CLOCK
LEGENDS
PICTURES OF THE FLOATING WORLD
CAN GRANDE'S CASTLE
MEN, WOMEN AND GHOSTS
SWORD BLADES AND POPPY SEED
A DOME OF MANY-COLOURED GLASS
A CRITICAL FABLE
(IN COLLABORATION WITH FLORENCE ATSCOUGH)
FIR-FLOWER TABLETS: POEMS TRANSLATED FROM THE CHINESE
Prose
TENDENCIES IN MODERN AMERICAN POETRY
SIX FRENCH POETS: STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
JOHN KEATS