152					120
                                                                      
                                                                      			 LANDWARD VIEW FROM VENICE
                                                                      		Refl[f]ected it in a metallic aqua marine - only its strong
                                                                      tide was seen gliding and curdling in one flat mass of
                                                                      shallow water that seemed to move altogether, without
                                                                      break or curve - and the far away islands seemed gliding
                                                                      the opposite way:  The water was not bright - only
                                                                      lustrous and of delicate metallic colour - for the sun
                                                                      was too low to make it luminous - and the lower sky was
                                                                      hazy - and all of deep tone - so deep that Murano and St
                                                                      Cristofo, which caught the sunset light full o seemed
                                                                      coming out of the dark haze in one long bar of crimson
                                                                      light, which the eye felt even when it was directed
                                                                      elsewhere - in its constant and intense presence
                                                                      Far away out of the mist the endless range of the Alps
                                                                      lifted their jagged ridge of silver:  melting into orange
                                                                      light towards the west - when the flat main land
                                                                      showed its dark line across their ghostly distance:  the
                                                                      single square mass of the Church of Mestre being the only
                                                                      object that broke its monotony;  close beside me, the
                                                                      green clear sea water lay quierly among the muddy shingles
                                                                      of the level shore, so calm that it made a little islet at
                                                                      the edge of it, of every stone:as clear as a mountain
                                                                      stream and with here and there a large block of marble
                                                                      marking the outmost foundations of Venice.
                                                                      Note:  just above the inlet between the Abbazia and
                                                                       Murano quay

[Version 0.05: May 2008]