object:1.ww - On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic
author class:William Wordsworth
book class:Wordsworth - Poems
subject class:Poetry
class:chapter
. Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee;
And was the safeguard of the west: the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty.
She was a maiden City, bright and free;
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And, when she took unto herself a Mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea.
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay;
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid
When her long life hath reached its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great is passed away.
NOTES
Form:
sonnet: abbaaccadedede
Composition Date:
1802?
br>2.
After the tremendous expansion of her power in the
thirteenth century, Venice did much to protect western Europe from the Turks.
4.
the eldest Child of Liberty. The Venetians prided themselves in the belief that
theirs was the oldest independent state in Europe.
7-8.
After a great naval victory of the Venetians in 1177, the Pope gave the Doge of
Venice a ring with which to wed the Adriatic, that the world might know that the sea
is subject to Venice, "as a bride is to her husband." The ceremony of wedding the
Adriatic was celebrated annually by the Doge throwing a ring into it.
12.
Napoleon entered Venice on May 16, 1797, and proclaimed the end of the
Republic. In October of the same year he handed Venice over to Austria.
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