Byron's Childe Harold (Canto IV); Prisoner of Chillon and Other Selections (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911. Excerpt: ... CANTO THE FOURTH.1 "Visto ho Toscana, Lombardia, Romagna, Quel Monte che divide, e quel che serra Italia, e un mare e 1' altro, che la bagna." 2 Ariosto, Satira iii. I Stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;3 A palace and a prison on each hand: I saw from out the wave her structures rise As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand: A thousand years their cloudy wings expand 5 Around me, and a dying Glory smiles O'er the far times, when many a subject land Looked to the winged Lion's marble piles, Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles II. She looks a sea Cybele,4 fresh from ocean, 10 Rising with her tiara of proud towers 1 This canto was begun at Venice in June, 1817, and.was published early in 1818, with an introductory letter to the poet's friend and traveling companion, Hobhouse, who furnished ample historical notes for it. 2 "I have seen Tuscany, Lombardy, and the Romagna, the mountain ranges which divide and those which border Italy, and the one sea and the other which bathe her." 3 Across which prisoners were conducted from the palace to the prison. The goddess of the earth. At airy distance, with majestic motion, A ruler of the waters and their powers: And such she was;--her daughters had tfceir dowers From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East 15 Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers. In purple was she robed, and of her feast Monarchs partook, and deemed their dignity increased. III. In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more, And silent rows the songless gondolier; 20 Her palaces are crumbling to the shore, And music meets not always now the ear: Those days are gone--but Beauty still is here. States fall, arts fade--but Nature doth not die, Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear, 25 The pleasant place of all festivi...