Julia Noyes Stickney (1830– )

MURILLO, gentle artist-saint of old,

Whose native city gems the sunny land

Where Moor and Christian fell by mutual hand!

When first the scroll of fame for thee unrolled,

The wandering beggars’ lineaments were told;

Thine own cathedral splendors had been scanned

And tinged with colors of that opal strand,

Ere thou didst paint the vision gates of gold,

Or saw the Lord, in holy Francis’ shrine,

With form supernal, bathed in heavenly love;

Or Hungary’s saint, with gifts of healing-rest;

Or dreamed, with Anthony, of Christ divine,

Robed in the effluence of the airs above,

Where thy Madonnas bore the Infant blest!