William Morris, The Defence of Guenevere and other poems

Robert Boenig (Texas A&M University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1858

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

William Morris began his serious efforts to write poetry while an undergraduate at Exeter College, Oxford in the mid-1850s. He wrote quickly and easily, amazing his friends with his facility. After taking a degree in 1855, he continued writing poems, though he pursued art as a career. He first chose architecture, joining the firm of the Gothic Revivalist G. E. Street to learn the craft, but he soon switched to painting under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who also wrote poems. 1857 saw Morris helping Rossetti and others paint Arthurian-inspired murals in the Oxford Union, meeting his future wife Jane Burden, who was soon to become the paradigmatic Pre-Raphaelite model, and setting out to publish a volume …

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1890 words

Citation: Boenig, Robert. "The Defence of Guenevere and other poems". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 December 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1091, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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