Two Paintings of Venice.

[Petronius]

I came first to Turner's Venice
where light blends with light
and colour with colour
until reflection and reality
shimmer in confusion.
I thought it then a place for lovers,
a place to wander hand in hand
through canyons of constructed beauty.
I came at first to Turner's Venice
and my eyes were younger eyes
and my love a younger love.

Now I come to the Venice of Canaletto
with its hard, bright revelation
of beauty based on trade,
where clean,sharp lines are drawn
between romance and common sense,
where every vertical is vertical
because we know it ought to be.
I look again and know
of the pile upon pile of industry
sunk deep in time's lagoon.
I know of the galleys that traded in
The riches of the Cyclades and Byzantium,
for ornaments of piety and profit.
The dirty deals made with soldiers and pirates:
the stink beneath the brocade.


But still this Venice is a place for lovers,
for lovers of a wiser kind,
who know of a love informed by intellect'
who, abraded by a thousand compromises,
have learned to live only the defined day
with grateful,quiet happiness.