Intermezzo: Venetian Nights

The masts rise white to the stars, White on the night of the sky, Out of the water’s night, And the stars lean down to them white. Ah! how the stars seem nigh; How far away are the stars!

And I too under the stars, Alone with the night again, And the water’s monotone; I and the night alone, And the world and the ways of men Farther from me than the stars.