The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-11-27


Patmore and Aubrey de Vere-poets as
nobly devoted TO their art as the Golden
Mouth We are mourning. But they arc
old men, alas and We know not how long
they will be with us. Swinburne is In
William Morris generation. He was q
young fellow at Oxford with him and
Burne Jones in 1857 when Rossetti went to
paint the walls of the Union with heroic
pictures, which afterward peeled away in
flakes. because of some lack of preparation
on the walls themselves. 1t is tradition
of Oxford that the three young fellows
were all in love with the beautiful woman
who became Mrs. Morris. If it is true no
woman before surely had the refusal of
such trio.
Many will rank Swinburne's poetry
higher than William Morris. do not.
The glamour that of old was in it, when
he could write such lines as these in "Fair
Eosamond:"
! never loved white roses much-but see
How the wind drenches the low lime branches
With shaken silver in the rainiest leaves,
is over. Since he has become decent he
has grown deadly dull, as bewildering as
the breathless song of canary in his
rapid jingle-as difficult to understand
often as Chinese puzzle. Far be it from,
me to defend those old days of his To me
his poetry is inconceivably horrible in it's
wickedness, and for one such bit of such
divine music as / have quoted, or for some
lovely lyric like 81 hid my heart in a nest
of roses." or "Let US go hence, my songs"
one had to pass over page after page, a
glimpse at which made one shudder. Some
one said his women were embodied pas
sions; but o, what passions! 1t is conceiv-
able that there should be vehement passion
IN man or woman worthy of being poet
lied if there went with it tenderness and
compunction and faith and the thousand
other things that make passion of love.
But this sentiment to be decked out with
fair words and fine music! Mr.. SWIM
burne of the old days did more to degrade
women than perhaps any writer has done
in our day. He had the advantage in
dealing with his critics that those who
would read and understand him held that
many of his subjects were such as the gos-
pei forbids us even TO name.
However, hold no brief for Mr.. Morris
claim on the ,laureateship. l doubt ex-
| ceedinglv that he would take it if it were
offered. Let her majesty honor herself
and the position by appointing Mr.. Cow
entry Patmore or Mr.. De We're or failing
those, that most exquisite of minor poets,
the post to a courtier and no poet, let her
select of Messrs. Edwin Arnold, Lewis
Morris and Alfred Austin; but William
Morris would make bad courtier. In
| the first place, what of a court suit?
He never clothes his burly limbs in
anything but blue serge, in which he looks
| for all the world like a bluff sea captain.
The tan or the sea breezes is on his cheeks
their clearness in his eyes II he be asked
to dinner the first thing he stipulates is
for his serge garments and no swallow-taii.
l remember that when he was in Dublin a
few years ago his hostess sent word to all
invited to meet him at dinner to wear
morning dress.
From his poetry no one would expect
him to become in time socialist, q shop
keeper and friend of the workingman.
'The Earthly Paradise" is stepped, if ever
poem was, in golden consciousness. "The
Defense of Guinivere" and Love Is
Enough" are misty with that glamour of
the past, which once it has laid its spell
upon a man is apt to bury him in palace
of dreams that might be the Sleeping
Beauty's. Yet, while becoming man of
vehement actions, such as his physique
pointed TO his becoming, ne has sur
rounded his life with such beauty as is not
often workaday.
Every one knows Morris shop in
Oxford street 1t is on the left-hand side
going from Regent circus to the Marble
arch. His factory is out countryways in
Surrey, and his happy workmen live in
pure air while they make those beautiful
things. and cooperate as well in their
masters profits. Perhaps [ ought not to
saw their master; | am sure Morris him.
self would strenuously object TO the title.
There are many beautiful shops near Nor
ris' Liberty's in Regent street, Salviati's
| Venetian glass shop, Benson's lamp shop
in Bond street, and its nelghboring bric-a-
brac shops, would be hard TO beat. How.
ever. none of them have more beautiful
things 10 show. There are beautiful sheets
of tapestry after designs by Burne Jones.
and exquisite screens in silk embroidery
worked by Miss May Morris and a band
OF rnadens. She must look, with her
Eossetti face, like lady OF the Crusades,
embroiderng with her damsels while
they waited Cor her lords homecoming.
| Then there is the beautiful Morris wall
paper. which Is an essential OF an artistic
house, and the scarcely less requisite Nor
Tis chIntzes and cretonnes. There are all
mannero OF Lovely Colds and pinKs and gray
greens, but Morris f4soTite color Is gray
blue, the color Of the silver fox. His wall
papers and chintzes follow in their pat
terms some bold design of nature. palm
trees springlng, or the falling oi fountain
water, or the thousand beautiful spiraIs OF
vine aud branch. Reeds aud vines and