17

The Two Phases of 's Poetics

(Received November 30, 2004)

KyushuInstituteofTechnology KeiNtJ'ibayashi

Introduction Morris is highly estimated both as an interior designer and as a socialist. Since he played an important role in the "Arts and Crafts Movement," it is almost impossible not to mention him in the development of twentieth century interior design. He founded Morris, Marshall & Faulkner Co., which had a great impact on the late Victorian house designs, and Kelmscott Press which attempted to render books distinctive and premium household goods by deliberate adaptation of medieval printing styles. Together with his collaborations with his friends like Edward Burne- Jones (stained-glasses) and Philip Webb (Red House), Morris's involvement in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is also often referred to especially because (Burden) has become its icon. Morris as a socialist is often regarded as of the so-called "utopischer Sozialismus" by Friedrich Engels. Publicly he became a member of Social Democratic Federation in 1883, and contributed many lectures and writings for its development. His socialism is generally known through IVews from IVowhere, a utopian novel written in 1891, which represents his ideal society as medieval and communist without any theoretical foundation or concrete plans. By this very fact, the novel, which is naturally considered as fantastical, stands out as the temporary embodiment of premature socialism at that time. But it is questionable whether Morris as a writer is properly evaluated now. It is difficult to find copies of his writings except IVews from Nowhere at bookstores. In the dictionaries and books of English literature, many of his creative writings are either briefly introduced or completely ignored.') Nevertheless, it is true that he spent much time and energy composing poetry and romances in spite of his business as a designer and a socialist. His poetry was highly regarded in his }ifetime and he was even asked to become the poet laureate after the death of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Many contemporary literary figures like Swinburne praised him as one of the most successfu1 poets at that time. His romances, however, were not estimated as highly as his poetry. They have been regarded as "fantasies" with a few exceptions and rarely been studied as literary pieces.2) In this context, this paper tries to reevaluate Morris's literary works, especially 18 Kei Nijibayashi focusing on his later romances which have been rather neglected, and to suggest both his aesthetic and moralistic characteristics by comparing his earlier poems with his later romances. Also it aims at demonstrating that Morris's romances can be considered as good examples in discussing the problem of "art and morality" in the history of English literature.

1

Morris's career as a writer is multiple and dramatic, and can be roughly divided into two periods of time: from 1850s to 1860s chiefly as a poet, and from 1870s to his death chiefly as a prose writer. He published The Defence of Guenevere in 1858, The Life and Death of Jason in 1867 and between 1868 and 1870. It is significant that, at the end of 1860s, he was greatly attracted to Icelandic sagas and became acquainted with Eirikr MagnUsson, an Icelandic pastor and linguist in 1868. They started translating some Icelandic stories immediately. In 1871 and 1873 Morris travelled to Iceland and came back impressed with the simple but humanistic life there.3' They translated Grettis Saga: The Storor of Grettir the Strong (1869), Vb'lsung Saga (1870), Three Northern Love Stories (1875) and Morris composed Sigurd the Vb'lsung, using the translation. Morris's interest in socialism commenced and grew around the same time as his interest in Icelandic literature, and this social and medieval thought considerably influenced his Iater romances: The Roots of the Mountains (1890), The Story of the Glittering Plain (1890), The Woocl beyond the World (1894), Child Christopher and Goldilind the Eair (1895), The Well at the VVorld's End (1896), The Water of the Wondrous Isles (1897) and (1897). Morris's literary development in the vicissitudes of literary forms should be more clearly understood through the comparison between the poems and the later romances. Morris's most popular collection of poems is perhaps The Defence of Guenevere, his earliest one. His poetics is typically represented in "The Defence of Guenevere," the title poem, which describes the queen at the stake defending herself from Sir Gauwaine's blame. Interestingly, she does not and perhaps need not try to defend her adulterous love to Launcelot. Instead, she defies Sir Gawaine's report as false to vindicate her own innocence. This might be seen as her technique to evade ethical blame on her own personal and social duty. Her curious justification of her own "innocence" does not derive from traditional views, but from self-righteous confidence in her own emotional truths. Therefore, she never hesitates to show her joy when she sees Lancelot come to rescue her at the end of the poem: "joyfu11y/Her cheek grew crimson, as the headlong speed / Of the roan charger drew all men to see, / The knight who came was Launcelot at good need" (lines 292-95)`'. The Two Phases of William Morris's Poetics 19

Probably an ethical justification is not really important for Morris. More exactly, he offers the dramatic scene of Guenevere's defence only aesthetically: the stunning beauty of Guenevere standing alone heroically and commanding her eloquence in the most dramatic situation of the stake. The emotional strength which makes Guenevere appear divine is supported by the rhyme too.5)

Though still she stood right up, and never shrunk, But spoke on bravely, glorious lady fair! Whatever tears her fu11 lips may have drunk . . . . (lines 55-57)

The triplet like terza rima contributes much to revealing her hidden inner emotions and to strengthening her speech even to persuade the un-persuadable. Considering the infiuences from Browning and Rossetti, it is inferable that the former gave the style of dramatic monologue and the latter led him to concentrate on the aesthetic aspect of human thoughts and emotions. The poem's aestheticism looks significant in comparison with Tennyson's "Guenevere." Tennyson's ldorlls of the King forms conservative and moralistic nationalism, which is conveniently compatible with the moral code of the Victorian period and is politically almost the opposite of Morris.6' Taking Tennyson's domination as a poet at that period into consideration, Morris's challenge against the contemporary ethical commonsense is intriguingly sensational. In fact there are some other poems in The Defence of Guenevere which do not allow easy ethical judgement like "Golden Wings" and "The Haystack in the Floods." Especially in the latter, it is almost monstrous to see Jehane's desperate ennui, which portends the horrible reality of life and death both to Robert and herself. Her defiance against Godmar on one hand represents the strength of individual will, but, on the other hand, it can be interpreted as the trap of temporary emotions which gorge and destroy her life itself. This negative aspect of individual will, which even devours others, offers one of the most anti-moralistic features in Morris's poetry and exceeds that in Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel," in which the girl wishes that her lover were dead to be reunited with her in heaven. Jehane's nihilistic smile after Robert's death shows "terrible beauty" in her accomplishing self-identification and self-importance, and this very beauty, which is gained by people's blood, is the focus of the poem.

She shook her head and gazed awhile At her cold hands with a ruefu1 smile, As though this thing had made her mad. (lines 162-64) 20 Kei Nijibayashi

Perhaps this is one of the extremes of aestheticism in Morris's poetry. Morris's aestheticism can be traced in his later poems like The Earthly Paradise and The Life and Death of Jason, especially in his apology to the former poem, which manifests his aestheticism as escapism. He clearly separates poetry from political or social context and offers it as a kind of consolation for human sufferings. Though it is tricky to judge if his attitude is pessiinistic, he clearly limits his role as a poet within the artistic field in "Apology" of 7Ihe Earthly Paradise.

So with this Earthly Paradise it is, If ye will read aright, and pardon me, Who strive to build a shadowy isle of bliss Midmost the beating of the steely sea, Where tossed about all hearts of men must be . . . . (lines 36-40)

Another good example is the opening poem, "The Wanderers," which describes how the protagonist's yearning for an earthly paradise is enhanced through various adventures and is disillusioned by the false artificial paradise at the end. The monologue is suitable for describing the narrator's changing impressions and enables the reader to follow his experience, nullifying the allegorical aspect and purifying the self-complete aestheticism. In fact, the Elder of the City relishes the Wanderer's narrative in contentment: "it shall bring us wealth of happy hours."7) The characteristics of Morris's poems as aesthetic are now to be compared with those of his later romances.

2

Morris's later romances have some typical features: archaism, medievalism, and epic and fantastical background. They all contribute to forming the legends of ideal heroes in ideal backgrounds. They might seem to be suggesting Morris's escapism again, and this can be discussed from the question of his disinterest in novels. He arguably considered his romances in reproduced medieval worlds as homage to the great medieval literary culture (as he did in publishing the illuminated books from Kelmscott Press). This may be a good enough reason for him to avoid novels, but it is quite possible to infer that he intentionally shunned using the prevailing mode to criticize the contemporary literary scene indirectly. For example, it has been often noticed that he was never enthusiastic about the realistic novels of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy.8' It is likely that Morris adapted the archaic style and theme for his literary protest; it is never simply self-indulgent escapism but with moralistic and aesthetical idealisms for the contemporary society. The Two Phases of William Morris's Poetics 21

Further analysis of the romances enables us to see some important structural features. The heroes never miss returning to their communities to be leaders with the help of the heroines as their soul mates and later as their spouses. The love plot is indispensable for the heroes to grow to be suitable leaders morally and spiritually. Although the romances are often criticized as fantastical, supernatural elements hardly influence their growth and, therefore, the plot; they can be almost seen as decorations for the settings. Each of these features should be examined to clarify Morris's changing literary principles. The stories of growth and achievement as Bildungsromans, which are always related to social improvement, strongly remind us of Morris's concern about the individual role for social welfare. His claim for socialism as a system to enable ideal individual life is more or less represented in the romances: the individuals bringing about the better social system.9) Only through the succession of tradition and social improvement, individual self-realization and autonomy are feasible in the romances. He sets in a certain pattem the characters able to realize social reformation. The protagonists in the romances resemble each other in their development, adventure and characterization; they sometimes show themselves as variations of the same archetype. For instance, Ralph in The Well at the World's End and Walter in The Wood beyond the World have common principles in search for adventure and ideal love and the common characters of indecision and perseverance. Ralph departs for an adventure, insatiate with daily life, and gradually rediscovers its target as the accomplishment of his love. Walter, on the contrary, begins his journey seduced by the magical vision of the dwarf, the maiden and the lady and inevitably goes through several hardships until he is finally united with the maiden as his ideal spouse. It is also worth mentioning that the two heroes are similarly helped, rescued and consoled by their lovers, Ursula and the maiden. In this way, Morris's romances have set a kind of archetype in the plot, the characterization and the setting.'O) This archetype might be defined as a kind of causality; the plot and the development of the protagonists are strongly connected. Morris seems to claim that the heroes' moral completion destines the happy ends of the stories; in other words, the romances represent an ideal pattern in a human community, which necessitates and justifies the archetypal heroes as ideal, successfu1 and beneficial. Creating an idealistic world which makes moral growth inseparable with social maturity, Morris faces the contemporary dominance of the novel, which explicates the ironical separation between inner goodness and social predicament as seen in Eliot's or Hardy's works. The moralistic causality in the romances is dependent on the growth of the archetypal characters, which is no more than the process of the heroes' self- recognition in achieving the targets of their adventures. The self-recognition occurs 22 Kei Nijibayashi

with the obtainment of something missing about or deprived from the heroes,ii) and it promises their development as well as that of their community. Their targets, often defined as their destinations like "the well," "the glittering plain" or "the wood beyond the world," turn out to be no more than the fulfillment of their love with ' the heroines. They invariably help the heroes contribute to the reformation of their communities. The process of discovering, assessing and believing in their lovers gradually consolidates their fellowship with others, which later becomes the nucleus of their feudal societies pacified and integrated. Thus, their stories embody the mythological archetypes of social evolution. The idea of individual influence on social dimension is seen as quite romantic. The Romantic literature more or less believed in the enlargement of sensibility for meliorism as typically seen in Shelley.i2' Especially when the theory centers on love, Morris's concept of ideal human relationship can be better understood in the context of the following quotation from The Defence of Poetry.

The great secret of morals is Love; or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautifu1 which exists in thought, action, or person not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.'3'

As some Romantic poets are, Morris is also indebted to Plato when he emphasizes the heroes' lovers as the missing counterparts for them to develop.i`) The romances represent a romantic interaction between the archetypal individuals and the potential feudal communities, and this largely depends on free will. Love is the most powerfu1 element in the protagonists' autonomy and it consolidates not only arbitrary social relationships but also self-identification through moral understanding of fellowship.is) Morris, however, strictly distinguishes the sexual, fantastical or conditional love from the soul love. In The Storor of the Glittering Plain, Hallblithe searches for the Hostage, the kidnapped fianc6 and reaches the kingdom of the glittering plain. Though the immoral king, who scorns the moral Iife of suffering,i6) offers his daughter as Hallblithe's bride, he declines his offer, rediscovers the fianc6 as his spiritual counterpart and finally regains her as his celebrated spouse, uniting the House of the Raven and the House bf the Rose. In Child Christopher, by the command of the usurper Earl Geoffrey, Goldilind is forced to get married with Child Christopher, who is also deprived of his royal position by the wiles of Rolf the Marshal.i7' Despite of their temporary difference in social classes and of their plight, they understand each other and develop their pure love relationship, which becomes much more valuable The Two Phases of William Morris's Poetics 23

than their own social ranks, even after their recapture of their own kingdoms. The quest of Ralph and Ursula in The Well at the Word's End continues parallel with the growth oftheir mutual love. It is symbolic that they find the well after getting married. It suggests that the completion of their love relationship necessitates the discovery, and vice versa.'8) The process is also therapeutic of Ralph's first lost love with the Lady of Abundance. His first love is the result of his fantastical adoration and is destined to be replaced by Ursula's earthly but real love, begun as friendship and grown into mutual reliability and consolation. Morris condemns the superficial sexual love in The Wood beyond the World. Chasing after the vision of the dwarf, the maiden and the lady, Walter enters the enchanted world of the tyranness to discover the maiden as his soul mate, who later becomes his spouse in place of his former faithless wife. However, in order to accomplish his love with the maiden, he has to go through the tyranness's sexual traps set to enthrall him. Though he has to have a sexual relationship with the tyranness finally, his heart remains unconquered. His perseverance, which enables him to win over the seduction, is actually the boon from the love with the maiden, and their mutual trust justifies their escape from the magic world and their marriage and everlasting happiness.i9) The completion of love is indispensable for the heroes' self-identification and self- realization; their generous, unselfish and sympathetic character is nurtured by their love experience.20) As a result, their moral development through love greatly affects their communities. However, this implies a great potential danger that they can lapse into the tricks of false love disguised and gilt with sensual appeal and sexual seduction.2i' The fatal results of such an immoral love might be observed in the unhappiness of the Lady of Utterbol (when she sees Ralph) in The Well at the World's End or the deaths of the tyranness and the King's son in The Wood beorond the Worlel. As seen so far, the archetypes in plot and characterization are under the commotion of dynamic emotional sway and on the subtle balance between reason and passion. The balance is only possible for the moralistic heroes who desire not only their individual contentedness and happiness but also social welfare. They never absorb themselves in their love, but they take their spouses back to their communities and often commit important governmental work to them.22) When the heroes' moral maturity can be counted as a decisive condition for the better society, each of the heroes' deeds or experience is regarded as a constituent step toward it. The integration of the individual and the collective through love is the greatest romantic and moralistic feature of Morris's later romances. It describes the organic growth of humanism from the individual to the collective exquisitely.23' 24 Kei Nijibayashi

Conclusion

As examined, Morris's literary principle changes drastically from the aestheticism in his early poems to the romantically moral meliorism in his later romances. The latter might be seen as rather archaic, compared with his modern poems, but it is certain that Morris has gained the style, theme and settings more suitable to his more matured thoughts and expressions. In this sense, he has developed his literary insights. His deep sympathy with human beings, which is prevalent both in his early poems and later romances, is elaborated with his greater vision of morality growing from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic dimension. This reinforces Morris's idea of art as for human welfare, not for its own sake.

1) See Margaret Drabble, ed., The Oxford Companion to English Literature (OUP, 2000) 695-96. Drabble is fair in surveying Morris's literary career and her explanation is appropriate, but half of his romances are not mentioned. 2 ) Even now, his romances are often evaluated as fantasies which have influenced C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, rather than for their own literary merit. 3) Morris writes about the people of Iceland as follows in his letter Charles Eliot Norton on 19 October 1871: "Then the people: lazy, dreamy, without enterprise or hope: awfully poor, and used to all kinds of privations ? and with all that, gentle, kind, intensely curious, full of their old lore, living in their stirring past you would say, among dreams of the `Furor Norsmanorum' and so contented and merry that one was quite ashamed of one's grumbling life . . . ." It should be noted that these characters are reproduced in the protagonists of his romances. Norman Kelvin, ed., The Collected Letters of VVilliam Morris, Volume I: 1848-1880 (Princeton University Press, 1984) 152. 4) All quotations of Morris's poems are from the following text and are referred to by lines. Peter Faulkner, ed., wrlliam Morris: Selected Poems (Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1992). 5) Though his semi-irregular rhyme sounds interesting to modern ears, contemporary critics are harsh about it as the reviewer in Saturday Review of 20 November 1858 says: "The subjoined lines are in an ugly, disjointed series of unrhymed triplets, and present a very unfavourable specimen of Mr. Morris's powers." See Peter Faulkner, ed., William Morris: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973) 45. 6) Mentioning the publication of Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, Morris shows his disinterest in Tennyson's Arthurian poems in his letter to Aglaia Ionides Coronio on 24 October 1872: "I suppose you see that Tennyson is publishing another little lot of Arthurian Legend. We all know pretty well what it will be; and I confess I don't look forward to it." Norman Kelvin, ed., The Collected Letters of William Morris, Volume I: 1848-1880 (Princeton University Press, 1984) 167. 7) G. D. H. Cole, ed., Williarn Morris: Stories in Prose, Stories in Verse, Shorter Poems, Lectures and Essays (Bloomsbury: Nonesuch Press, 1934) 353. The Elder of the City then compares the Wanderer's story to faded flowers which still can remind of their blooming time: "Dry are they now, and void of all their scent1And lovely colour, yet what once was meant/By these dull stains, some men may yet descry / As dead upon the quivering leaves they lie" (354). The Two Phases of William Morris's Poetics 25

8) Though he admits some of their works, he is not interested in Eliot's realistic and Hardy's pessimistic description of rural lives. See Norman Kelvin, ed., The Collected Letters of William Morris, Volume I: 1848-1880 (Princeton University Press, 1984) 295n. Also, , William Morris: Artist, Writer, Socialist, Volume I(Oxford: Blackwell, 1936) 304-5 9) It is interesting to see that Morris considers the protagonists of the romances as poet (artist) figures in the way they can change people's perception. In "The Beauty of Life," Morris argues the effect of the artists' prosperity in future as universal: "the great wave of rising intelligence, rife with so many natural desires and aspirations, will carry all classes along with it, and force us all to see that many things which we have been used to look upon as necessary and eternal evils are merely the accidental and temporary growths of past stupidity, and can be escaped from by due effort and the exercise of courage, goodwill, and forethought." Morris summarizes this movement as "The Democracy ofArt." See Lionel Trilling and Harold Bloom, eds, Victorian Prose and Poetry (OUP, 1973) 301, 310. 10) It is important to note here that Morris himself clearly denied allegorical interpretations of his romances in his letter to the editor of The Spectator, responding to their criticism on The Wood beorond the World: "I had not the least intention of thrusting an allegory into `The Wood Beyond the World;' it is meant for a tale pure and simple, with nothing didactic about it. If I have to write or speak on social problems, I always try to be as direct as I possibly can be." Norman Kelvin, ed., The Collected Letters of William Morris, Vol. 4: 1893-1896 (Princeton University Press, 1996) 291. 11) In search for the Holy Grail, Galahad realizes not the grail but his faith as wanted at the end of his journey. In Morris's romances, it is not religious but secular spiritual fulfillment that the heroes search for, and Morris answers that it is love. 12) For example, in The Revolt of lslam, Laon and Cythna, who shares political and social idealism, develop their love relationship, which symbolically becomes the foundation of the revolutionary riot. The tyrant with the help of the evil priest fights back, captures them and eventually executes them at the end of the poem. 13) Donald H. Reiman and Neil Fraistat, eds., Shelleor's Poetror and Prose (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002) 517. 14) The heroes' government after returning from their adventures also echoes the philosopher king of Plato too. 15) Ralph learns much from his relationship with his first lover, the Lady of Abundance. When he first rescues her, he momentarily hesitates in judging her bound and dragged. His belief in her nature actually opens the way to the well at the world's end and to Ursula, his spouse in future. In many ways, he is educated by the Lady and through the people and the book she knows. 16) The king persuades Hallblithe as follows: "Where else than in this land wilt thou find rest? Without is battle and famine, longing unsatisfied, and heart-burning and fear; within it is plenty and peace and good will and pleasure without cease. Thy word hath no meaning to me." See William Morris, The Storor of Glittering Plain and Child Christopher (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1996) 272. 17) At fust Goldilind protests; "Is it seemly for a King's daughter to wed a nameless churl? And now I know thee, Lord Earl, what thou wouldst do; thou wouldst be King of Meadham and put thy master's daughter to the road." Ibid., 198. 18) When Ralph and Ursula drink from the well at the world's end, their conversation certainly shows that they regard their achievement as of their love: Quoth he: "And how tasteth to thee the water of the Well?" 26 Kei Nijibayashi

Slowly she spake and sleepily: "It tasted good, and as if thy love were blended with it." William Morris, The Well at the World's End: Volurne II (London: Ballantine Books, 1971) 83. 19) For example, the maiden encourages Walter when he becomes pessimistic: `"But if thou be nought changed, & the oath yet holds, then, when a little while hath passed, may we thrust all evi1 and guile and griefbehind us, and Iong joy shall lie before us, and long life, & all honour in death: if only thou wilt do as I bid thee, O my dear, and my friend, and my first friend!' He looked on her, and his breast heaved up as all the sweetness of her kind love took hold on him, and his face changed, and the tears filled his eyes and ran over, and rained down before her, and he stretched out his hand toward her." William Morris, The l?Vood beorond the World (OUP, 1980) 80. 20) It is interesting to analyse the speech by his father, King Peter at Ralph's coronation. He explains that Ralph succeeds the throne not because of his victory in the battle but of his moral completion, and then he thanks not only Ralph for having saved Upmeads but also Ursula for all her help for Ralph's mental development: "he knelt to Ursula also, and bade her all thanks for what she had done in the helping of his son." He even predicts the prosperity of UpmeadS by Ursula's fertility. Morris emphasizes the development of a community as an enlarged version of love relationship: "it is not for this cause that I have set him in my throne this even; but because I see and perceive that of all the kindred he is meetest to sit therein so long as he liveth; unless perchance this lovely and valiant woman should bear him a son even better than himself- and so may it be. Therefore I do you all to wit that this man is the King of Upmeads, and this woman is his Lady and Queen; and so deem I of his prowess, and his wisdom, and kindliness, that I trow he shall be lord and servant of other lands than Upmeads, and shall draw the good towns and the kindreds and worthy good lords into peace and might and well-being, such as they have not known heretofore." William Morris, The Well at the World's End: Volurne II (London: Ballantine Books, 1971) 239. 21) Perhaps this is one of the reasons Morris often describes the heroines in nude when they meet their future spouses at the first time. The heroes admire their physical beauty but never miss evaluating their inner nobleness and beauty as the richer. 22) For example, the maid as the queen endeavours to enlighten the primitive tribe, "the Bears," at the end of the story. See William Morris, The Wood beorond the World (OUP, 1980) 167. 23) J. M. S. Tompkins' analysis of Morris's later romances is overall persuasive, but his analysis, which regards them as adventures of individuals, does not pay enough attention to the organic growth of the individual into the collective. See J. M. S. Tompkins, William Morris: An Approach to the Poetror (London: Celcil Woolf, 1988)323-355.