Note 3 — Chapter V · CRITICAL REACTION (1870-1900)
Reading edition
You’re not the same, oh flower of morbidezza, queen of the Adriatic! Glittering Jordan of love, where the wandering Musset drank lustral beauty in waves. Your smile, oh triumphal Venice, is gone—olympic diamond that was set in the heroic forehead of the lord, bard and lover, immortally great. Your dark lagoon no longer hears the plangent strains of the olden serenade,—the sighs of love heaved by the voluptuous patrician in your gondolas.… There remains but the yearnful song of San Marco’s moaning pigeons.