SOBER gray skies and ponderous clouds,
With gaps between of pallid blues;
Bluff breezes stirring the brown canal;
A broad, flat meadow's myriad hues

Of soft and changeful breadths of green,
Barred with the silvery grass that bows
By straight canals, and dotted o'er
With black and white of basking cows;

And distant sails of hidden ships
The ceaseless windmills show or hide,
Through languid willows white they gleam,
And over red-tiled houses glide.

Two sturdy lads with wooden shoes
Go clumping down the reed-fringed dyke,
And tow a broad-bowed boat, where dreams
The quaint, sweet virgin of Van Eyck.

And slipt from out the revel high,
Where gay Franz Hals has bid him sit,
Above the bridge, his lazy pipe
Smokes placidly the stout De Witt.