Beneath the felsa will I laze and smoke,

And through the sable doorway gaze upon

The brightly tinted sunny water-sheet!

So quaint, so full of harmony it seems—

Like some rare picture in an ebon frame!

The foreground shows our trusty gondolier,

White-clad, brown-skinned, recumbent, fast asleep!

Above—the gondola's bright, sheeny prow

That flashes, gleams, and glisters in the sun;

On either side are mouldy, tide-washed walls,