Modern Venice.-Byron.

[From "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."]

1. I STOOD in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;*
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
Around me, and a dying glory smiles
O'er the far times, when many a subject land
Look'd to the wing'd lion's marble piles,

When Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!

2. She looks a sea Cybele,t fresh from ocean,

Rising with her tiara of proud towers

At airy distance, with majestic motion,

A ruler of the waters and their powers;

And such she was-her daughters had their dowers
From the spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East
Pour'd in her lap all gems in sparkling showers.
In purple was she robed, and of her feast
Monarch's partook, and deem'd their dignity increased.

3. In Venice Tasso'st echoes are no more,

And silent rows the songless gondolier;
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,
The pleasent place of all festivity,

The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.

• The communication between the ducal palace and the prisons of Venice is by a gloomy bridge, covered gallery, high above the water, and divided by a stone wall into a passage and a cell. The state dungeons were sunk into the thick walls of the palace; and the prisoner, when taken out to die, was conducted across the gallery to the other side, and being then led back into the other compartment or cell, upon the bridge, was there strangled. The low portal through which the criminal was taken into the cell is now walled up; but the passage is still open, and is still known by the anme of the "Bridge of Sighs."—Note by Lord Byron.

+ Cybele (sible-le), the goddess of nature or the earth, is frequently represented with a sceptre in her hand, and her head is always covered with towers.

Before the conquest of Venice, the gondoliers were accustomed to sing a song taken from Tasso't famous poem, “Jerusalem Delivered;" but it is said that the song has died with the independenc of the republic.

4. But unto us she hath a spell beyond

Her name in story, and her long array
Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond
Above the dogeless city's vanish'd sway;
Ours is a trophy which will not decay

With the Rialto: Shylock and the Moor,*
And Pierre,* cannot be swept or worn away-

The keystones of the arch! though all were o'er,

For us repeopled were the solitary shore.

5. The spouseless Adriatic mourns her lord;

And, annual marriage now no more renew'd,
The Bucentaur lies rotting unrestored,
Neglected garment of her widowhood;
St. Mark yet sees his lion where he stood.
Stand, but in mockery of his wither'd power,
Over the proud Place where an emperor sued,t

And monarchs gazed and envied in the hour,
When Venice was a queen with an unequall'd dower.

6. The Suabian sued, and now the Austrian reigns-
An emperor tramples where an emperor knelt;
Kingdoms are shrunk to provinces, and chains
Clank over sceptred cities; nations melt
From power's high pinnacle, where they have
The sunshine for a while, and downward go
Like lauwinet loosen'd from the mountain's belt;
Oh, for one hour of blind old Dandolo !

Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe.§

7. Before St. Mark still glow his steeds of brass,
Their gilded collars glittering in the sun;
But is not Doria's menace come to pass?

Are they not bridled?-Venice, lost and won,

Shylock is the chief character of Shakspeare's play, "The Merchant of Venice;" by the Moor is meant Othello, the chief character in Shakspeare's tragedy of that name, the scene of which is chiefly laid in Venice. Pierre has reference to Otway's "Venice Preserved," in which the chief character bears that name.

A victory was gained in 1177 over the fleet of Frederick Barbarossa, one of the Suabian emperors; and at the congress which was held at Venice a short time afterward, Frederick approached the throne on which Pope Alexander III. was sitting, and, in the presence of the doge and other dignitaries, prostrated himself, and allowed the pope to put his foot upon his neck in token of submission. A German word meaning avalanche.

§ Constantinople was taken by the Crusaders in 1201, chiefly through the skill and prowess of the Venetians, under their doge, Dandolo, then ninety years of age. The throne of the Eastern Empire was offered to him, and he refused to accept it.

Her thirteen hundred years of freedom done,
Sinks, like a sea-weed, into whence she rose!
Better be whelm'd beneath the waves, and shun,
Even in destruction's depth, her foreign foes,
From whom submission wrings an infamous repose.

8. In youth she was all glory,—a new Tyre,—

Her very by-word sprung from victory,

The "Planter of the Lion," which through fire
And blood she bore o'er subject earth and sea;
Though making many slaves, herself still free,
And Europe's bulwark 'gainst the Ottomite;
Witness Troy's rival, Candia! Vouch it, ye

Immortal waves that saw Lepanto's fight!
For ye are names no time nor tyranny can blight.
9. Statues of glass-all shiver'd-the long file

Of her dead doges are declined to dust;
But where they dwelt the vast and sumptuous pile
Bespeaks the pageant of their splendid trust;
Their sceptre broken, and their sword in rust,
Have yielded to the stranger: empty halls,
Thin streets, and foreign aspects, such as must
Too oft remind her who and what enthrals,
Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lonely walls.

The Fall of Poland.-Campbell.

[The third partition of Poland occurred in 1795. It was preceded by an unsuccessful attempt of the Poles, under their gallant leader, Kosciusko, to achieve their independ ence. The following lines, from Campbell's Pleasures of Hope," are descriptive of the sad result of their efforts.]

1. On! Sacred Truth! thy triumph ceased awhile,
And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile,
When leagued Oppression pour'd to northern wars
Her whisker'd pandours and her fierce hussars,
Waved her dread standard to the breeze of morn,
Peal'd her loud drum, and twang'd her trumpet horn;
Tumultuous horror brooded o'er the van,

Presaging wrath to Poland and to man?

2. Warsaw's last champion from her height survey'd
Wide o'er the fields, a waste of ruin laid,—
Oh! heaven! he cried, my bleeding country save!
Is there no hand on high to shield the brave?

Yet, though destruction sweep these lovely plains, Rise, fellow-men! our country yet remains!

By that dread name, we wave the sword on high! And swear for her to live!-with her to die!

3. He said, and on the rampart heights array'd
His trusty warriors, few, but undismay'd;
Firm-paced and slow, a horrid front they form,
Still as the breeze, but dreadful as the storm;
Low, murmuring sounds along their banners fly,
Revenge, or death,-the watchword and reply:
Then peal'd the notes, omnipotent to charm,
And the loud tocsin toll'a their last alarm'

4. In vain, alas! in vain, ye gallant few!

From rank to rank your volley'd thunder flew ;-
Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of Time,
Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime;
Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe,
Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe!

Dropp'd from her nerveless grasp the shatter'd spear,
Closed her bright eye, and curb'd her high career;-
Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shriek'd-as Kosciusko fell!

5. The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there,
Tumultuous horror shook the midnight air-
On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below;
The storm prevails, the rampart yields away,
Bursts the wild cry of horror and dismay!
Hark! as the smouldering piles with thunder fall,
A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call!
Earth shook-red meteors flash'd along the sky,
And conscious Nature shudder'd at the cry!

6. Oh! righteous heaven! ere Freedom found a grave, Why slept the sword, omnipotent to save?

Where was thine arm, O vengeance! where thy rod
That smote the foes of Zion and of God;

That curb'd proud Ammon when his iron car
Was yoked in wrath, and thunder'd from afar?

Where was the storm that slumber'd till the host
Of blood-stain'd Pharaoh left their trembling coast,
Then bade the deep and wild commotion flow,
And heaved an ocean on their march below?

7. Departed spirits of the mighty dead!

Ye that at Marathon and Leuctra bled!

Friends of the world! restore your swords to man,
Fight in his sacred cause, and lead the van!
Yet for Sarmatia's tears of blood atone,
And make her arm puissant as your own!
Oh! once again to Freedom's cause return
The patriot Tell-the Bruce of Bannockburn!

The Dirge of Nicholas.-Daniel.

[Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, was a stern and remorseless despot. The insurrection of Poland (1830), and the cruel punishments inflicted by Nicholas upon the unfortunate Poles; the crushing out of the Hungarian insurrection by the interference of the Czar, and the Crimean war, were the most noted events of his reign. Nicholas died while the latter was in progress (1855). The following lines are from the "Lays of the Crimean War," by William S. Daniel.]

1. HARK, hark! to the telegraph bell!

There are news on the trembling wire,
That well their mighty message tell
In words of living fire;

A man lies dead

On a royal bed,

Who hath spilt man's blood like rain;

But his hour is come,

And his lips are dumb,

And he'll never shed blood again :
Coffin him, coffin him under the sod,
Nicholas Romanoff meets his God!

2. Speed the news by the swelling sail
And the hoof of the desert steed,
To darksome nooks where mourners wail,
And fields where brave men bleed;-
Speed the news to the freeman's strand,
And the captive's rayless cell-

Breathe them o'er Siberian land,

Where the despot's victims dwell,