Shadow and Substance, from "Picture Poesies"

North's image shows a young woman fishing in a still pool, with a girl and older woman beside her, their forms reflected in the water below. The wood engraving first appeared in "Wayside Posies:Original Poems of the Country Life," edited by Robert Williams Buchanan, illustrated by G. J. Pinwell, J. W. North, and Frederick Walker, engraved by the Brothers Dalziel, and published by Routledge as a Fine Art gift book. In 1874, the publisher reissued the print in "Picture Poesies." The related poem, whose author is not identified, describes the passionate love of a young man who is afraid to declare himself.

Shadow and Substance

The sun is bright in the meadow,
The Spring flowers blow,
Nell stands by the spring and her shadow
Glimmers below;
And I try to muster the daring
To creep more near,
And whisper the passion past bearing
Into her ear.

Her eyelids droop while she fishes,
Her eyes look down! —
But while I whispered my wishes,
If Nell should frown,
I think I should turn to self-slaughter,
As something sweet,
And, embracing her shade in the water,
Die at her feet!