File:Milan Cathedral, 1913.jpg

Identifier: shrinesoldnewoth00farmuoft (find matches)
Title: Shrines old and new, and other poems
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Farmer, Thomas Devey Jermyn
Subjects:
Publisher: Toronto W. Briggs
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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plains of Lombardy. ♦There are no less than 6,000 carved marble figures on theexterior alone of this remarkable building. Every point andpinnacle represents some saint, martyr, apostle or father of thechurch. SHRINES OLD AND NEW CIvXIX. I saw Lake Como mountain-circled creep Northward, and whitend peaks their shadowsthrowInto her mirror many fathoms deep, Fed by eternal streams from Alpine snow. I saw along her shore Bellagio,Studded with villas of the Milanese, Around which palms and rare exotics grow;And bays, where mighty glaciers towered, theseRecalld in mimic our famd emerald-dyed Louise. CLXX. Venice! thou ancient city of the sea, Where sands of centuries from Alps defilesHad formed those shoals on which men fashionedthee; None other like thee rising on thy piles. Artistic bridges threading twixt thine Isles;And many a dome and sea-girt portico, Sparkling with Oriental gems and styles.Thou art not of to-day—no longer glowThy fires, thy greatness and prestige of long ago. 136
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I stood among the dazzling minaretsOn old ^lilans white marble temple. (See page 135.) SHRINES OLD AND NEW CI.XXI. Where are those scenes on which the artists dwell,Of which rare tales attracted childhoods ear? Where are those songs of which the poets tell;The sensuous carols of the Gondolier,Whose only canticles that now we hear Are yells and curses on the midnight air?Where thy old customs men did once revere? That faith with reverence calling men to prayer?* The long dead echoes of the past alone say where. * Of all the evidences of Venices decadence, none is moreapparent than that of the church. Scores of dingy, grimy-look-ing, empty churches may be seen, only resorted to by curiosityseekers, beggars, and a few feeble-looking women, and the figuresof whose once beautiful marble facades are now defaced andclogged with pigeons nests and other filth. Dusty, broken andabandoned shrines of the Virgin are also met with on nearlyevery corner. Only in Saint Marks, where, as William DeanHo

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