WILLIAM MORRIS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21198, 23 June 1934, Page 19

WILLIAM MORRIS

TO TUB EDITOI4 OF THE PRESS. Sir,—The address of Professor F. Sinclaire on William Morris, and published in your columns this week, was most befitting of a great and worthy Englishman. To forget would be an ungracious act; to be indifferent to a man so dowered with nature's gifts who gave to the world with lavish hand, this would be sin. It is a singular thing that so few persons in New Zealand have any acquaintance with the works of William Morris. As a craftsman I do not remember that he had an equal in Great Britain. The world would be correspondingly poorer, had he n&t designed for the homes of England. Morris produced designs for wallpapering, tapestry, crockery, glassware, furniture, all of which help to give us the home beautifuL And I

know of one piece of furniture only by which his name will be perpetuated —the Morris chair.

In the realm of poetry, Morris was an acknowledged master. The heroic stories of Iceland are among the highest achievements of literature in force and grandeur—Sigurd the Volsung', the story of the Glittering Plain and the Well at the World's End. I believe that these literary productions place Morris among original thinkers. However, I cannot claim to be a master in the world of poetry, but will venture my opinion for what it is worth. I believe that the finest work of Morris lives in "The Earthly Paradise." The genius of this great man finds its richest expression in the beautiful poem. Morris called it a tapestry woven of over 42,000 lines of rhymed verse. He made reference to the singer of an empty day. Allow me to choose one verse:

Thou, keen-eyed, reading me, nmyst read him through, For surely littlo is thero left behind: No power great deeds unnameable to do; No knowledge for which words he may not find. No love o£' things as vague as a,utumn wind— Earth of the earth lies hidden by my clay, The idle singer of an empty day 1

At the death of Tennyson in 1892. Dublic opinion as expresed toy tne Gladstone government, offered Morris the Poet Laureateship, which he declined because of failing health. He was pleased to know that he had been considered, however, as a suitable successor to hold that title. In the report of the professor s lecture some reference was made to Morris being a business man. He was certainly a founder along with Rosetti, Madox Browne, and Burne-Jones, of Morris and Company, but as to whether he was a successful business man i find no mention made by his biograpliMorris inherited from his parents at 21 a sum of £IOOO a year, which enabled him to live without _ any worry. There were other qualities that Morris had which he gave with unstinted hand during the 62 years of his life, into which he had compressed the work of 10 ordinary men. William Morris is worthy of recognition, and we are all in his debt.— Yours, etc., MOSES AYRTON. Tai Tapu, June 20, 1934. ■