Such is Munich :-broad and stately,

Rich of hue, and fair of form;

But, towards the end of August,

Unequivocally warm.

There, the long dim galleries threading,

May the artist's eye behold,

Breathing from the "deathless canvass"
Records of the years of old:

Pallas there, and Jove, and Juno,

"Take" once more "their walks abroad,"

Under Titian's fiery woodlands

And the saffron skies of Claude:

There the Amazons of Rubens

Lift the failing arm to strike,

And the pale light falls in masses

On the horsemen of Vandyke;

And in Berghem's pools reflected

Hang the cattle's graceful shapes, And Murillo's soft boy-faces

Laugh amid the Seville grapes;

And all purest, loveliest fancies

That in poet's souls may dwell

Started into shape and substance

At the touch of Raphael.

Lo! her wan arms folded meekly,
And the glory of her hair

Falling as a robe around her,

Kneels the Magdalene in prayer;

And the white-robed Virgin-mother

Smiles, as centuries back she smiled,

Half in gladness, half in wonder,

On the calm face of her Child:

And that mighty Judgment-vision

Tells how man essayed to climb Up the ladder of the ages,

Past the frontier-walls of Time;

Heard the trumpet-echoes rolling

Through the phantom-peopled sky,

Marked the shower of sunlight breaking
Through the crimson panes o'erhead,

And on pictured wall and window

Read the histories of the dead:

Till the kneelers round us, rising,

Crossed their foreheads and were gone;

And o'er aisle and arch and cornice,

Layer on layer, the night came on.

Will excuge this same, which I ast yer parding

grant yer grace,

Havin' been took with fits last night and never slep

a wink

A thinking o' you, my bird, and but for the leastest drop o' drink

Should be a copse in the arey now; which well you knows, my child,

It's little as Sairey wants, perwisin' it's brought

reglar and drawed mild:

So here's luck, and a ansome pardner, and a puss

and goldian guineas,