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Venetian Epigram 12: Gleaming the ocean appear'd, the beauteous billows were smiling
Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853) · From Venetian Epigrams
GLEAMING the ocean appear'd, the beauteous billows were smiling,
While a fresh, favouring wind, filling the sails, drove us on.
Free was my bosom from yearning; yet soon my languishing glances
Turn'd themselves backward in haste, seeking the snow-cover'd hills.
Treasures unnumber'd are southwards lying. Yet one to the northwards
Draws me resistlessly back, like the strong magnet in force.
Cite this poem
MLA
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “Venetian Epigram 12: Gleaming the ocean appear'd, the beauteous billows were smiling.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/312/.
Chicago
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “Venetian Epigram 12: Gleaming the ocean appear'd, the beauteous billows were smiling.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/312/.
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