Canto IV - I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs

I.

I stood in Venice, on the "Bridge of Sighs;

A Palace and a prison on each hand:

I saw from out the wave her structures rise

As from the stroke of the Enchanter's wand:

A thousand Years their cloudy wings expand

Around me, and a dying Glory smiles

O'er the far times, when many a subject land

Looked to the wingéd Lion's marble piles,

Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles!