CHARLES H. WELCH
56
The following attempt to put into verse, something of the feelings aroused by the first acquaintance with Venice,
was originally written for the Home Magazine, already spoken of.
Mrs Hancock Nunn commenting on this effort, said `every one who visits Venice under thirty, wants to write a
poem'. The reference to `love and peace and eternity' was not because I had at the age of twenty either hope or
knowledge of salvation, but these sentiments were included as a poetic conclusion and to give an artistic finish.
VENICE THE FAIR
Beauteous still art thou in thy decay,
Thy beauty yet, outshineth living states,
It seemeth, thou art destined by the fates
to be for aye.
Thy streets of glinting green, thy paths of sea
That mirror skies that crown thy glorious head
Of mid-day blue, or even's gold and red
but jewels for thee.
Yet not as ropes of pearl on beauty's breast
That heave and sink with every living breath