THE EARLY POEMS OF WILLIAM MORRIS
List of Surviving Early Morris Poems, and Poetic and Prose Fragments (including those published in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine)
Starred (*) entries below remained unpublished in Morris's lifetime.
1. Ballad: Where have you been so long to-day?
Pub. AWS, I, 517.
Draft in Morris' hand in Fitz. MS 1, titled "The Cruel Stepmother."Another draft in Murray's hand in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, f. 81 titled “Ballad” and filed under a section headed "Poems by the Way." The poems in this section were all copies of juvenilia which Murray sent to Morris in 1891 while he was working on Poems By the Way; in his letter thanking Murray, Morris called it "The Stepmother." Stokes describes this and "Malmston had a dream in the night" (see below) as translations from the Danish (27 fn.).
2. Ballad: Malmston had a dream in the night
Pub. AWS, I, 517-18.
Draft in Morris' hand in Fitz. MS 1.
Another draft in Murray's hand in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 79-80.
3. Fame: Why weepeth he? why weepeth he?
Pub. AWS, I 518-23.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 37v-40 in what may be Morris' adolescent hand. This and nos. 4-9, 13, 14, and 16-18 below are all written in a large, loose, symmetrical script, quite different from that used by the copyist of "The Mosque Rising in the Place of the Temple of Solomon" (formerly known as "The Dedication of the Temple"), a poem which May Morris received in the same batch of poems from her niece Effie Morris in 1921, and which she describes as written out "for or by" her aunt. May Morris apparently hesitated to identify her aunt's handwriting, but at least did not assume that the very different "Fame" script was hers. The uncertainty is resolved, however, by the one surviving Emma Morris letter (to her niece Jenny, 1887, William Morris Gallery MS J77), written in the script of "The Mosque Rising" copyist. Emma was not the copyist for "Fame" or the other poems in the same handwriting which were found in her drawer; other possibilities include Henrietta Morris or Morris himself. Morris' handwriting varied widely; although the handwriting of "Fame" is less compressed than that of the Fitzwilliam early script, the capital letters are similarly formed. May Morris often mentioned whether drafts were in her father's hand, but here said nothing. See also the note on 10.
4. The Abbey and the Palace: Standing away from the cornfields
Pub. AWS, I, 523-24.
Draft in Add. B. L. MS 45,298A, ff. 40v-41, in what may be Morris' hand; see the comments above under 3.
5. The Night-Walk: Night lay upon the city
Pub. AWS, I, 525-29.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 41-43v, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3.
6. The Banners: Stands a house among the trees
Pub. AWS, I, 531.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 33v-34, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3.
7. Drowned: What is the bottom of the river like?
Pub. AWS, I, 531.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A,f. 45; see 3.
8. The Three Flowers (Now the crocus is beside me / In the sweet spring-tide of year;)
Not pub. in CW or AWS, but appears in Le Bourgeois, 208-210, and Lindsay, 29-31.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 30-31, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3.
*9. The Ruined Castle (The dream of a castle, standing alone / In the midst of a leafless wood;)
Not pub. in CW or AWS, but appears in Le Bourgeois, 210-12.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, 32-33v, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3.
Portions pub. AWS, I, 277-82; also published in William Whitla, “The Mosque Rising in the Place of the Temple of Solomon’: A Critical Text,” The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, 9 (Spring 2000).
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, in what May Morris (AWS, I, 376) describes as copied "for or by" Emma Morris. She also states that only Emma knew of Morris' poem on the Oxford prize subject. According to a letter from Effie Morris, May Morris' niece, this poem, two accompanying fragments, and a copy of "The Willow and the Red Cliff" were written out by Aunt Henrie (Henrietta, Morris' other older sister), but May Morris seems to have doubted her niece's judgment. The one surviving Emma Morris letter justifies this doubt: its handwriting is a less readable version of that used for "The Mosque Rising." A partial copy of "Scenes from the Fall of Troy" also exists in Emma's script; see 34.
*11. Fragment: From all other moving shadows
Unpublished.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 13-14; copied in Emma Morris' hand; see the comments above under 10. Since this breaks off with a comma at the end of a page, it may well have continued. It seems unlikely that Morris would have sent his sister an uncompleted poem.
*12. Fragment: And then as the ship moves over the deep
Unpublished.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 14; copies in Emma Morris' hand; see 10.
Listed as a fragment, though possibly it is complete.
13. The Fen-River (Down, down, down, ever down the river)
Pub. AWS, I, 529-30.
Draft in Add. B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 45-46, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3.
*14. The Blackbird (Listen [to] the blackbird singing / To the red flush in the west!)
Unpublished.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 34-34v, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3.
15. The Willow and the Red Cliff (About the river goes the wind)
Pub. CW, XXI, xxx-xxxv.
2 drafts in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, one in Emma Morris' hand, the other a typed copy.
2 typed copies are in the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, J186 and J186a.
This is the first poem Morris read to his Oxford friends in the winter of 1855.
16. Winter Weather (For many, many days together)
Pub. CW, I, 370-72 and CW, XXIV, 81-83 (CW, XXIV, “We rode together in the winter weather / To the broad mead under the hill)
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 36-37, titled "The Midnight Tilt," in what may be Morris' hand; see 3. Also appeared in OCM, January, 1856, 63-64.
17. 'Twas in Church on Palm Sunday
Pub. CW, XXIV, 76-77.
Draft in B.L. Add. MS 45,289A, ff. 29-30, titled “Kisses,” in what may be Morris' hand; see 3. May Morris omitted this title when she published the poem in CW, XXIV. Morris included a copy of the poem in a letter to Cormell Price, dated "Tuesday in Holy Week," 1855.
18. Blanche (Broad leaves that I do not know / Grow upon the ground full low)
Pub. CW, XXIV, 78-80.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 34v-36, in what may be Morris' hand; see 3. Mackail dates this 1855, though he does not explain on what basis.
19. Fragment: The Maying of Queen Guenevere
Pub. CW, I, xix.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1, in Morris' hand. Another draft in Morris' hand is in Yale University Library MS 1595.
20. The Long Land (Scene: A place that no one knows.)
Pub. CW, XXIV, 58-62.
A fair copy autograph MS.with alterations is in B. L. Add. MS 74,255, 7 pp. blue-grey ruled paper, titled “The Longland.” One page is missing and has been torn out. There is also a draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 68-74, in Murray's hand.
21. Rejected fragment from Sir Peter Harpdon's End
Pub. CW, I, xxvi-xxx.
Draft in Morris' hand at Yale University Library, MS 1595.
22. Once my Fell Foe (Once my fell foe worsted me; / All my honour and degree )
Pub. CW, XXIV, 52-57.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1, in Morris' hand.
23. The Romance of the Three Wooers (Years agone it did befall)
Pub. CW, XXIV, 63-67.
Morris Autograph, early draft, B. L. Add. MS. 74255, ff. 1-6.
24. St. Agnes' Convent (St Agnes’ convent by the merry sea)
Pub. CW, XXIV, 68-69.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 82-84. In C. F. Murray's hand.
25. Palomydes Quest (About the middle of the month of June / Sir Palomydes rode upon his quest, )
Pub. CW, XXIV, 70-71. Draft in Morris' hand at Yale University Library, MS 1595. Contains an additional two pages not included in the Collected Works.
Pub. CW, XXIV, 74.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1.
27. Ballad: There were two knights rode together
Pub. CW, XXIV, 72-73.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 76-78, in Murray's hand.
28. Saint George ( Such careless thoughts as maids will have, she had )
Pub. CW, XXIV, 75.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1.
*29. Why do they make these lists in the great square?
Fragment pub. CW, XXI, xix. May Morris describes this as "a tale of the Froissart type."
Draft in Fitz. MS 2.
*30. A time there was in days long past away
Fragment pub. CW, XXI, xx-xxi.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1.
Another Froissartian poem. May Morris describes this as a "labored love-tale in verse" and prints only two stanzas out of eighty-three.
Described and selections published, CW, XXI, xxi-xxiv; May Morris says of it:"the spirit of the ballad is almost out-done, in the careless and naughty scamper of exuberant youth."
Draft in Fitz. MS 2.
32. I went through many lands and found no rest.
Pub. CW, XXI, xxv-xxx. B. L. Add. MS. 74,255, f. 6 and poss. other ff.
33. Rejected fragment from The Defence of Guenevere
Pub. CW, I, xx.
“That summer morning out in the green fields,” discarded or lost beginning for “The Defence of Guenevere,” in Tinker Library MS1595, Yale University.
34. Scenes from the Fall of Troy
Pub. CW, XXIV, 3-51.
Draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,321,ff. i + 65, some written out fairly well, some in messy draft, some in pencilled outline. A portion of this MS was copied by Murray and another portion by Emma Morris.
Also in B. L. MS 45,298A there are 2 pp. of the opening verses copied in Morris' fair hand, followed by a page of rejected draft in couplets, perhaps an attempt at an introduction.
In Fitz. MS 3, f. 27 is a one-page fragment on Paris and Helen in Morris' handwriting, containing as Helen's song the lyric "Ah how lone how lone it is," and about 20 lines of narrative couplets.
35. On the Edge of the Wilderness
Pub. CW, IX, Poems By the Way, 146-48. Mentioned by Morris in a letter to Charles Murray, 1891; see Stokes, 27 n.
Unpublished.
Draft in Morris' hand in Fitz. MS 3, untitled.
Another copy in B. L. Add. MS 45,298A, ff. 42-67, in C. F. Murray's hand, titled "The Sleeve of Gold," and containing several variants and an initial twenty-two stanzas not in Morris' draft. In his letter thanking Murray for sending poems (see comments on 1), Morris refers to this as "Catherine." The Murray copy further includes a six-stanza Catherine lyric, also on the theme of conflict between the love of father and husband; it is sufficiently different so that it may be a separate fragment. The Fitzwilliam version seems to run on into what I have labeled "Sir Richard" no. 46, but although the protagonists of both are "Sir Richard," there is no mention of Catherine in the latter. Yale University MS 1595 contains a draft of the first 35 stanzas in Emma Morris' hand, followed by Morris' rough version of the last six stanzas, "Fair Catherine made as if she rowed."
*37. Fragment: The Lady of the Wasted Land
Unpublished.
Draft in Fitz. MSS 1 and 2. Title is Murray's, not on MSS. A verse version of the prose tale no. 45; May Morris mentions these two versions in CW, XXI, xx.
*38. Lo Sirs a Desolate Damozel
The first six stanzas only published in CW, I, xxx-xxxi.
Murray labels both this and the previous poem "The Lady of the Wasted Land," but this may be in fact another version of nos. 37 and 44.
Draft in Morris' hand in Fitz. MS 2. Also a copy by Sydney Cockerell in B. L. MS 45,298A.
*39. The Story of the Flower and Introduction to "The Story of the Flower"
Metrical extracts from "The Story of the Flower" with May Morris prose summaries pub. CW, XXI, xvi, xvii, 323-40. She states that the title "The Story of the Flower" was in Morris' mind from his earliest days.
Also a fragment of 8 lines in Murray's hand exists in B. L. Add MS 45,298A, f. 75, titled "Introduction to the 'Story of the Flower," and another copy by Murray of the same is in the Fitzwilliam Museum Library, Ellis Autograph Album, f. 8.
An autograph draft in B. L. Add. MS 45,328, ff. 150-83 is marked at the top “Story of the Flower?” by another hand. Folio 185 is a one page partial draft, also in Morris’s hand, f. 186 contains another A. MS. partial draft, and ff. 196-97 is an A. MS., “For the Story of the Flower.”
Whether these are from his early or middle period is unclear, though in contrast to Morris' early ballads (by which I think she means the fragments now in the Fitzwilliam), May Morris describes them as "later fragments."
40. Songs from “The Hollow Land”
Pub. CW, I, 259, 289
Appeared in OCM, September and October, 1856, 567-68, 640.
41. Song from “Gertha's Lovers”
Pub. CW, I, 179, 180. Appeared in OCM, July, 1856, 405.
42. Pray but one prayer for me ("Summer Dawn")
Appeared in the OCM, 1856, October, 644, without a title. Also included in The Defence of Guenevere, 1858, 246 with the title, "Summer Dawn."
Pub. CW, I, 291, 301-2.
Appeared in OCM, December, 1856, 739.
*44. Prose Fragment: The Lady of the Waste Land
Unpublished.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1.
*45. Prose Fragment: The Green Summer
Unpublished.
Draft in Fitz. MS 1.
Draft in Fitz, MS 3, in Morris' hand, untitled, follows "Catherine" poem(s). A Froissartian fragment; compare "Sir Peter Harpdon's End." Mentions the Vicomte of Rohane, Sir John Chandos, and Sir Hugh Calverly, all from Froissart’s Chronicles.
*47. Dear friends, I lay awake in the night
Unpublished.
Typescript appended to typescripts of "The Willow and the Red Cliff" in the William Morris Gallery and in Fitz. MS 3, f. 8. In his memoirs of Morris in the Morris Gallery, R. W. Dixon states that he believes this "touching little prayer in verse" was composed the day after Morris read "The Willow and the Red Cliff" to his friends.
*48. Early Draft: The Man Born To Be King
Fitz. MS 2, in Morris' hand, 10ff. Very rough. Murray titles it "The Man Born To Be King" in his table of contents to Fitz. MS 2. May Morris cites portions of this in CW, III, xvi-xvii, and CW, XXI, xviii. (The CW, XXI passage apparently preceded the CW, III one). She comments, "It is interesting, as it was written, I think, about the time of 'The Scenes from the Siege of Troy,' the workmanship being in my father's younger manner --full of vigorous, imperfect, and impatient verse, different indeed from that of the published 'Earthly Paradise'” (III, xvi). This would make it the earliest known draft of an individual Earthly Paradise tale.
*49. Fragment: Yoland
3 page draft in Morris' hand in Yale University Library MS 1595 with the top torn off. The speaker embraces a woman who challenges him to fight--"Coward she said/ Do you fear death." He agrees to fight, speaks of drowning, and finally asserts,
At any rate I fear no man...
I am not now afraid of God.The themes suggest an inchoate version of the early prose romance, "A Dream," or a rejected draft for "The Tune of Seven Towers."
B. L. Add. MS 74,255, 5v and possibly other folios from same ms. According to the British Library description, this is “possibly a continuation of The Romance of the Three Wooers, but not published by May Morris as part of that.” The poem is described as “a powerful Arthurian erotic nightmare in which the narrator, as Sir Johnne, finds Eleanore dying, attended by ten maidens.”
May Morris publishes "I went through many lands and found no rest" and "Mad as I was I stopped" as a single poem. As presently gathered in B. L. 74,255, "Mad as I was" is f. 5v, "I went through many lands" f. 6 [see no. 32], "I knew not where I was, but felt a globe" (f. 7), and "I who am curious about many things" (f. 2], "Sir Jacques prayed, then rose with a pale face) (f. 10), but the exact separation into poems and sequence is uncertain.
"I who am curious about many things" (f. 2) does seem to precede "Sir Jacques prayed" (f. 10). The fragment beginning "Mad as I was I stopped & thought there now," f. 5., is written in pen on blue paper, unlike "Sir Jacques prayed," f. 10, which is on white.
*51. "I Who am curious . . . Sir Jaques prayed . . .
B. L. Add. MS 74,255, ff. 1, 2, 11., ink, described by the B. L. as possibly a continuation of the previous poem. Murray groups this with “The Three Wooers” and “Mad as I was I stopped” as part of one poem.
"I who am curious about many things" (f. 2) does seem to precede "Sir Jacques prayed" (f. 10).
B. L. Add. MS 74,255, one page, on verso of last leaf of The Longland (no. 20). This draft contains a stanza not published in The Defence of Guenevere.
Notes to Defence of Guenevere version
53. Song from "Frank's Sealed Letter" ("Wearily, drearily")
Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, March 1856, 230. Later included in The Defence of Guenevere under the title, "In Prison" (1858 ed., 247-48).
54. Hands ("Twixt the Sunshine and the Shade")
Published in the July, 1856 Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 452, and later included in "Rapunzel" as the Prince's Song, 1858 ed., 131-132.
55. The Captive (published in revised version in The Defence of Guenevere as "Riding Together")