Should her domes, which at evening are golden,

Dissolve as her Apennine snows;

Should the sceptre, which long she hath holden,

Depart, and the crown from her brows,

And the robes of her splendour be rolled in

The gray dust of her woes;

Should the glory grow dim of her Titians,

Her gondolas drift ’neath the moon;

Should her marbles, mosaics, Venetians,

Evanish and pass as a swoon;