3-052-814 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Catarina, drawn by Luke Fildes, A.R.A., 1880. 'I. Errant artists with pencils that capture The comeliest faces and forms, Say, whence that one ripple of rapture In the eyes of this lady of storms I Smiling under those locks Oriental - Blue-black, and as wild as her will - Is a brow that is wondrously gentle, While her lips, for a wonder, are still. II...Could you see her with rival and suitor, Scant need for your guide to explain Whether Murray or painstaking tutor) How the Moors intermarried in Spain. III. The sun's in the rich blood that courses Through the veins of that faintly-rosed cheek With the speed (may we say of wild horses?) In her moments of passion and pique: Not the shores vexed by Biscay's wild water - Not the home of the lithe mountaineer - Can mother this leopard-like daughter Of Spain - and of tawny Tangier. IV. When thy feet, Catarina, have woven The rhymes set by tender guitars - And good-night resolves are all cloven By the mystical spell of the stars, 'Tis then one would dream of defiance To custom, and whisper, sweet maid! Of a priest, and a Spanish Alliance, That is - if one were not afraid!' Byron Webber. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.