WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

?2i. Evening on Calais Beach

TT is a beauteous evening, calm and free,

• The holy time is quiet as a Nun

Breathless with adoration ; the broad sun

Is sinking down in its tranquillity ;

The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea : Listen ! the mighty Being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make

A sound like thunder everlastingly.

Dear Child ! dear Girl ! that walkest with me here,. If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought, Thy nature is not therefore less divine :

Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year ; And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine, God being with thee when we know it not.

522. On the Extinction of the Venetian

��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 fatle,

Those titles vanish, and that strength decay ; Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid

When her long life hath reach'd its final day : Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade

Of that which once was great is pass'd away.

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