The assignation

The Assignation (+Biography and Bibliography) :ILL-FATED and mysterious man! bewildered in the brilliancy of thine own and fallen in the flames of thine own youth! Again in fancy I behold thee! Once more thy form hath risen before me! not oh not as thou art in the cold valley and shadow but as thou shouldst be squandering away a life of magnificent meditation in that city of dim visions, thine own Venice which is a starbeloved Elysium of the sea, and the wide windows of whose Palladian palaces look down with a deep and bitter meaning upon the secrets of her silent waters. Yes! I repeat it as thou shouldst be. There are surely other worlds than this other thoughts than the thoughts of the multitude other speculations than the speculations of the sophist. Who then shall call thy conduct into question? who blame thee for thy visionary hours, or denounce those occupations as a wasting away of life, which were but the overflowings of thine everlasting energies?It was at Venice, beneath the covered archway there called the Ponte di Sospiri, that I met for the third or fourth time the person of whom I speak. It is with a confused recollection that I bring to mind the circumstances of that meeting. Yet I remember aah! how should I forget? the deep midnight, the Bridge of Sighs, the beauty of woman, and the Genius of Romance that stalked up and down the narrow canal.