POEMS OLD AND NEW

Shameful Death.

William Morris (1834-1896), after an education at
Maryborough and Oxford, began his career as an
architect. His artistic temperament revolted from the
monotonous drabness of an age of machinery, and he
devoted himself to restoring something of the inspired
craftsmanship of the Middle Ages. He joined the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded for a similar purpose
by D. G. Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, and in-
cluded among his enterprises hand-printing, painting,
poetry, and designs for wall-papers and house-decora-
tion. In '6 The Life and Death of J ason'' he approaches
Chaucer in the ease and limpidity of his narrative,
while in his lyrics he gives evidence of dramatic
power.

P. 24, 1. 25. Hornbeams : a small tree commonly used for

P. 25, 1. 3. Fen : flat, marshy land.
1. 4. Dolorous : mournful.
The Ballad of Semmerwater.
Sir William Watson (b. 1858) came of a Yorkshire
family. His numerous volumes of poetry, beginning
with "The Prince's Quest" (1880), were written
chiefly under the influence of Swinburne. His best
work is done in the more simple ballad style.
P. 26, 1. 6. Mickle : great.
1. 8. Wakeman : watchman.
1. 20. Brant: steep.
Hart-Leap Well.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born and educated
in the Lake District, where he spent a free and happy
childhood. After a short period at Cambridge Uni-
versity, he travelled abroad, chiefly in France, just
after the outbreak of the Revolution. His enthusiasm
for France and the ideas of the Revolution suffered a
severe shock with the September Massacres in 1792,
and for the next few years he was in a state of deep
depression and uncertainty. These years were spent at
Nether Stowey, in Somerset, in the society of his sister
Dorothy and his friend Coleridge. Through their
influence and by his renewed contact with Nature, he
gradually returned to his healthy youthful outlook, and
in 1798 began the great period of his poetic production.
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