We glided; and from that funereal bark

I leaned, and saw the city, and could mark

How from their many isles, in evening’s gleam,

Its temples and its palaces did seem

Like fabrics of enchantment piled to Heaven.

I was about to speak, when—“We are even

Now at the point I meant”—said Maddalo,

And bade the gondolieri cease to row.

“Look, Julian, on the west, and listen well

If you hear not a deep and heavy bell.”