Lord Byron, his poetry on Venice

Lord Byron

The Queen of the Ocean

“Thus, Venice, if no stronger claim were thine,
were all thy proud historic deeds forgot.
Thy choral memory of the Bard divine,
Thy love of Tasso, should have cut the knot
Which ties thee to thy tyrants ; and thy lot
Is shameful to the nations — most of all.
Albion! to thee : the Ocean queen should not
Abandon Ocean’s children ; in the fall
Of Venice think of thine, despite thy watery wall.”
Lord Byron - Child Harold Pilgrimage Canto the Fourth - 17

The Wonder of the World

“I loved her from my boyhood ; she to me
Was as a fairy city of the heart.
Rising like water-columns from the sea.
Of joy the sojourn, and of wealth the mart;
And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakespeare’s art,
Had stamp'd her image in me, and even so.
Although I found her thus, we did not part,
Perchance even dearer in her day of woe,
Than when she was a boast, a marvel, and a show.”
Lord Byron - Child Harold Pilgrimage Canto the Fourth - 18

Bright Colours

“I can repeople with the past — and of
The present there is still for eye and thought,
And meditation chasten'd down, enough ;
And more, It may be, than I hoped or sought ;
And of the happiest moments which were wrought
Within the web of my existence, some
From thee, fair Venice I have their colours caught ;
There are some feelings Time cannot benumb.
Nor Torture shake, or mine would bow be cold and dumb.”
Lord Byron - Child Harold Pilgrimage Canto the Fourth - 19

The Pretty Venetian Girls

“They 've pretty faces yet, those same Venetians,
Black eyes, arch'd brows, and sweet expressions still ;
Such as of old were copied from the Grecians,
In ancient arts by modems mimick'd ill ;
And like so many Venuses of Titian's
They look when leaning over the balcony,
Or stepp'd from out a picture by Giorgione.
[…]
I said that like a picture by Giorgione
Venetian women were, and so they are.
Particularly seen from a balcony
And there, just like a heroine of Goldoni,
They peep from out the blind, or o'er the bar ;
And truth to say, they’re mostly very pretty,
And rather like to show it more’s the pity!”
Lord Byron - Beppo, Venetian Story - 11