File:The life of William Morris (1907) (14778804371).jpg

Identifier: lifewilliammorris01mack (find matches)
Title: The life of William Morris
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Mackail, J. W. (John William), 1859-1945
Subjects: Morris, William, 1834-1896
Publisher: London : Longman, Green and Co.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
ty day/ 212 THE LIFE OF WILLIAM MORRIS (1870 I dont think, he writes within a few days of thedate of these verses, cc people really want to die becauseof mental pain, that is, if they are imaginative people;they want to live to see the play played out fairly.Such at all events was his own feeling. People whohave not this imaginative instinft often wonder how apoet can bear to lay open his inmost feelings, and un-cover the weaknesses of which man is made: still oftenerthe self-revelation passes clean over the heads of hisaudience, and so far are they from wondering that theydo not even notice. It is the knowledge, no doubt, thatall of his innermost heart, his love and hope and sorrow,which he pours into his verses is to the unsympatheticreader simply meaningless, which allows a poet to writefearlessly what, being a poet, he must write in any case.Sorge nie dass ich verrathe! so true still are Heinesbitter v/ords: sorge nie! diese Welt glaubt nicht anFlammetiy und sie nimmfs fur Poesie.
Text Appearing After Image:
CHAPTER VII MORRIS AND KELMSCOTT At the age of thirty-six, in the full prime of vigourand in the rising light of fame which had not yet drawnafter it its inevitable shadows of imitation and detraction,Morris occupied a position in some ways as enviable ascould have been devised for him by his own imaginings.Wattss great portrait is the memorial which representshim at this stage of his life most fully if not most in-timately. From it looks out the powerful and beautifulface which impressed itself unforgettably even on thosewho saw it but once. The massive head with its thicklyclustering dark curls ; the vague inexpressive eyes; thesensitive mouth, a little overweighted by the broadfrank brows, are recorded in it with the felicity ofgenius. One sees in it the dreamer of dreams, as hedescribed himself in a much quoted phrase, who is atthe same time the man of aftion, overflowing withpractical energy, and as eager as he had been in thedays of his earliest enthusiasm, not only u to do and

Note About Images