And the watery mist with radiance fills,
And the mighty palaces loom pale
Like battlements in a fairy tale.
LADY LINDSAY.
The great Venetian heaven, overarching the lagoon, has especially this power to fascinate, to take one suddenly by surprise with an unlooked-for revelation of its beauty, its greatness, and its immortal activity; charging the spirit with some transport of the skies, and compelling it to its knees in adoration.
HORATIO F. BROWN.
Ah! you never yet
Were far away from Venice, never saw
Her beautiful towers in the receding distance,
While every furrow of the vessel’s track