University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Collected Works of William Morris

With Introductions by his Daughter May Morris

expand sectionI. 
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII, IV, V, VI. 
expand sectionVII. 
expand sectionIX. 
expand sectionX. 
expand sectionXII. 
collapse sectionXIV. 
collapse section 
  
expand sectionII. 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIV. 
expand sectionV. 
expand sectionVI. 
expand sectionVIII. 
expand sectionIX. 
expand sectionXI. 
expand sectionXIII. 
expand sectionXV. 
expand sectionXVI. 
expand sectionXVII. 
expand sectionXIX. 
expand sectionXX. 
expand sectionXXII. 
collapse sectionXXVI. 
  
  
[“Thou sayest sooth, O daughter: I am no God of might]
  
  
  
expand sectionXXVII. 
expand sectionXXVIII. 
expand sectionXXIX. 
expand sectionXXX. 
expand sectionXXXI. 
expand section 
expand sectionXV. 
expand sectionXVI. 
expand sectionXVII. 
expand sectionXXI. 
expand sectionXXIV. 

[“Thou sayest sooth, O daughter: I am no God of might]

[Wood-Sun.]
“Thou sayest sooth, O daughter: I am no God of might,
Yet I am of their race, and I think with their thoughts and see with their sight,
And the threat of the doom did I know of, and yet spared not to lie:
For I thought that the fate foreboded might touch and pass us by,
As the sword that heweth the war-helm and cleaveth a cantle away,
And the cunning smith shall mend it and it goeth again to the fray;
If my hand might have held for a moment, yea, even against his will,
The life of my belovèd! But Weird is the master still:
And this man's love of my body and his love of the ancient kin
Were matters o'er-mighty to deal with and the game withal to win.
Woe's me for the waning of all things, and my hope that needs must fade
As the fruitless sun of summer on the waste where nought is made!
And now farewell, O daughter, thou mayst not see the kiss
Of the hapless and the death-doomed when I have told of this;
Yet once again shalt thou see him, though I no more again,
Fair with the joy that hopeth and dieth not in vain.”