Early Poems of William Morris illustrated by Florence Harrison

In 1908 Blackie commissioned Florence Harrison to illustrate several books. We have shown Poems by Christina Rossetti in 2015.

The illustrations of The Early poems of William Morris which appeared in 1914 are now presented.

 Frontispiece

“…In that garden fair

Came Launcelot walking; this is true the kiss

W’herewith we kissed in meeting that spring day,

I scarce dare talk of the remember’d bliss.”

The Defence of Guenevere

And one of these strange choosing cloths was blue,

Wavy and long, and one cut short and red;
No man could tell the better of the two.

"Guenevere! Guenevere!

Do you not know me; are you gone mad?"

"Rise up, and look and listen, Galahad"

How thief! thief! thief! so there, fair thief, so there

Suppose this had not happen'd after all; I will lean out again and watch for news.

My mother taught me prayers

To say when I had need.

 

"O, sisters, cross the bridge with me,

My eyes are full of sand.

What matter that I cannot see.

If ye take me by the hand?”

Fair Jehane du Castel beau

Wore her wreath till it was dead.

But she is a housewife good and wary,

And a great steel key hangs bright

From her gown, as red as the flowers in corn.

Beneath an apple-tree our heads

Stretched out toward the sea.

No one walks there now;

Except in the white moonlight

The white ghosts walk in a row.

 Then Godmar turn’d again and said:

“ So, Jehane, the first fitte is read!

Take note, my lady, that your way

Lies backward to the Chatelet!”

My prison-bars are thick and strong.

I take no heed of any weather,

The sweet Saints grant I live not long.

Pray but one prayer for me ‘twixt thy closed lips,

Think but one thought of me up in the stars.