Explore "Venice" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest / So wonderfully built among the reeds / Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds, / As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest! / White water-lily, cradled and caressed / By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds / Lifting thy golden filaments and seeds, / Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest! / White phantom city, whose untrodden streets / Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting / Shadows of palaces and strips of sky; / I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets / Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting / In air their unsubstantial masonry.