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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Albert Dürer’s Studio

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Nuremberg (Nürnberg)

Albert Dürer’s Studio

By Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–1881)

IN the house of Albert Dürer

Still is seen the studio

Where the pretty Nurembergers

(Cheeks of rose and necks of snow)

Sat to have their portraits painted,

Thrice a hundred years ago.

Still is seen the little loop-hole

Where Frau Dürer’s jealous care

Watched the artist at his labor,

And the sitter in her chair,

To observe each word and motion

That should pass between the pair.

Handsome, hapless Albert Dürer

Was as circumspect and true

As the most correct of husbands,

When the dear, delightful shrew

Has him and his sweet companions

Every moment under view.

But I trow that Albert Dürer

Had within his heart a spot

Where he sat and painted pictures

That gave beauty to his lot,

And the sharp intrusive vision

Of Frau Dürer entered not.

Ah! if brains and hearts had loop-holes,

And Frau Dürer could have seen

All the pictures that his fancy

Hung upon their walls within,

How minute had been her watching,

And how good he would have been!