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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE TO THE BROWN PAPER BAG by JAMES GALVIN THE SHPEHERD'S HOUR by PAUL VERLAINE THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 7. OF PLEASURE AND PAIN by THOMAS CAMPION ROBIN HOOD, TO A FRIEND by JOHN KEATS ON MUSIC by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR |