Beauty, I thought, stood tiptoe on his height—
When down the near canal, and tossed in air,
Two lofty sails moved slow athwart the light;
And their tall masts and soaring booms aslope,
Were sky-companions of the lonely dome,
That on Giudecca bids the sinner hope,
And seen from Malamocco speaks of home.
The moving sails, the thought of ocean’s life,
The sense of human will within the ship,
Enriched the peace with which they seemed at strife,