Library of the best American literature / Containing the lives of our authors in story form, their portraits, their homes, and their personal traits, how they worked and what they wrote; choice selections from eminent writers, embracing great American poets and novelists, foremost women in American letters, distinguished critics and essayists, our national humorists, noted journalists and magazine contributors, popular writers for young people, great orators and public lecturers

by Unknown

Below, against the dull esparto grass,

The almonds glimmer white.

Huge gateways, wrinkled, with rich grays and browns,

Invite my fancy, and I wander through

The gable-shadowed, zigzag streets of towns

The world’s first sailors knew.

Or, if I will, from out this thin sea-haze

Low-lying cliffs of lovely Calais rise;

Or yonder, with the pomp of olden days,

Venice salutes my eyes.