Poems (Scudder)/Venetian Vases
VENETIAN VASES
You float and poise with such fantastic grace Above the unseen tides of air as might A dolphin or sea-swallow or the whiteSwan-city of your birth. Against the rays
Of the waning lamp you shift from phase to phase Your rose-golds melting into silver blues And to all subtle, all bewildering hues, Crocus or apricot or chrysoprase. And now displaying in unbroken swirl Clear-edged, opaque, such polished bronze and pearl As the lagoon in stormy twilights shows. Now laced and globed and shot with tints that run Through the still water when the sinking sun Behind Saint George's of the Seaweed glows.