No More Learning

T. C. in 'The Friend', iii. p. 46:

'The sacred light of childhood,'

and 'The Prelude', book v. l. 507. Ed. ]





* * * * *





ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC


Composed August, 1802. --Published 1807


This and the following ten sonnets were included among the "Sonnets
dedicated to Liberty"; re-named in 1845, "Poems dedicated to National
Independence and Liberty. "--Ed.




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; 5
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And, when she took unto herself a Mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea. [A]
And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay; 10
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.


* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Compare 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' (canto iv.
II):

'The spouseless Adriatic mourns her lord. '

Ed. ]


"Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee. "

The special glory of Venice dates from the conquest of Constantinople by
the Latins in 1202. The fourth Crusade--in which the French and
Venetians alone took part--started from Venice, in October 1202, under
the command of the Doge, Henry Dandolo. Its aim, however, was not the
recovery of Palestine, but the conquest of Constantinople. At the close
of the crusade, Venice received the Morea, part of Thessaly, the
Cyclades, many of the Byzantine cities, and the coasts of the
Hellespont, with three-eighths of the city of Constantinople itself, the
Doge taking the curious title of Duke of three-eighths of the Roman
Empire.

"And was the safeguard of the west. "

This may refer to the prominent part which Venice took in the Crusades,
or to the development of her naval power, which made her mistress of the
Mediterranean for many years, and an effective bulwark against invasions
from the East.

"The eldest Child of Liberty. "

The origin of the Venetian State was the flight of many of
the inhabitants of the mainland--on the invasion of Italy by
Attila--to the chain of islands that lie at the head of the
Adriatic.

"In the midst of the waters, free, indigent, laborious, and
inaccessible, they gradually coalesced into a republic: the first
foundations of Venice were laid in the island of Rialto. . . . On the
verge of the two empires the Venetians exult in the belief of
primitive and perpetual independence.