Late Autumn In Venice

(After Rilke) The city floats no longer like a bait To hook the nimble darting summer days. The glazed and brittle palaces pulsate and radiate And glitter. Summer's garden sways, A heap of marionettes hanging down and dangled, Leaves tired, torn, turned upside down and strangled: Until from forest depths, from bony leafless trees A will wakens: the admiral, lolling long at ease, Has been commanded, overnight -- suddenly --: In the first dawn, all galleys put to sea! Waking then in autumn chill, amid the harbor medley, The fragrance of pitch, pennants aloft, the butt Of oars, all sails unfurled, the fleet Awaits the great wind, radiant and deadly.