SIR LEWIS MORRIS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6412, 8 January 1908, Page 7

SIR LEWIS MORRIS

ESTIMATE OF HIS POEMS. (“Manchester Guardian.’*) It is a little hard to estimate Sir Lewi® (Morris’s correct place as a poet.. Many good critics thought poorly of him. John Bright paid a very high tribute to “Tho Epic of Hades"—a remarkable fact when it is remembered that Bright had no general admiration for classical themes. Sir Lewie at least knew his* pnblic, and his books sold well._ In his ideas lie was essentially a mid-Victorian. He had been educated at a time when all schoolboys were still taught to write Latin verse,, and he naturally came tinder tho influence of Tennyson. Indeed his outlook on life was essentially that of tbo late Laureate, the vague theology iu the last poem iu tho "Songs of Two Worlds” vividly recalling the "In Memoriam," while “Gwen," a pretty dramatic idyll, has a distinct resemblance to “Maud." But he never rise© as high as Tnennyson. If, how'ever, he never struck a deep note, his clear and graceful verse was at times, even to the lover of real poetry, an agreeable change from Browning and Swinburne. Writing of Vaughan, the Silurist, he observes that after his fights with the Roundheads his muse grew soft and mild. Sir Lewis Morris’s muse always was "soft and mild," and so she was not unacceptable to the mid-Victorian, public. Many of his graceful verses will, wo may expect, survive in the way that some of tho poems of Mrs Hemano new live. Though in "Gwen" the Welsh landscape is prominent, yet it is strang§ how little inspiration, on the whole, the poet drew from his own country, its history, and poetry. Although h© was sprung from an ancient Welsh stock and was keenly interested in Welsh education, old Wales, the Wales of Arthur and the Mabinogion, of Glyndwr and Dafydd an Gwilym, made for the most part little appeal to him. However, he did interest himself in an unsuccessful attempt to erect a memorial to the ill-fated Llewelyn ap Griffith, the last native Prince of Wales, and wrote a touching ode on the ill-starred chief. In discussing the whole subject of Welsh nationalism he once observed: “I have been all my life trying to interest my country men in modern things. Now I think that they are sufficiently alive to tho present, and it is time that they thought a little more of the past." Living in retirement for many years past, ho found pleasure in occasionally turning his poetic gifts to tho service of Welsh national occasions. A few years ago he sent us a collection of Welsh school songs, with a pleasant letter in which he explained his wish to provide something genuinely'patriotic'in the best sense for Welsh children to sing or recite. On the occasion of some of the Royal visits to Wales in connection with Welsh education he wrote ode© of welcome. In one on the Installation of King Edward (then Prince of Wales) as Chancellor of tho Welsh University he referred to t the King as "our lost Llewelyn," who "seem® again to com© for love of learning to his ancient home." Ho received a knighthood in