John Ruskin on the impossibility of replicating the work of the old masters:

"This is grievous, you think, and hopeless. No, it is delightful and full of hope: delightful, to see what marvellous things can be done by men; and full of hope, if your hope is the right one, of being one day able to rejoice more in what others are, than in what you are yourself, and more in the strength that is for ever above you, than in that you can ever attain".

--From Lectures on Art Delivered at Oxford, by John Ruskin

W.A. Dwiggins was a type designer and graphic communications designer during the early 1900s. He also made puppets and started two puppet theatres, staging shows with 12 inch marionettes.

This is his flickr pool, and I think it shows the variety of his interests and pursuits.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/wadwiggins/pool/show

Harold Monro was a british poet and publisher (1879 - 1932).

This is a poem of his that is included in The Collected Poems of Harold Monro, as published by T.J. Cobden Sanderson - 

Seed-Time Outside Eden

he

Now, while I scatter seed, you wait,

and scare the birds, beside that gate.

The task is hard I have to do:

It is an easy one for you

There in the shade to sit and sing,

and keep those large flocks on the wing.

she

Why are you always busy now?

The grain, the harvest, or the plough

Take all the spirit from your kiss.

Leave sowing. Your glad love I miss.

Or if my singing has become

A cry to scare the birds, I'm dumb.

Do as you must. I will not stay

To help you. I will sleep to-day.

he

Ah! you don't mind about the grain:

So my whole work may be in vain.

I know my duty, and will do

All that I can, in spite of you.

The seed is burning in my hand,

And lusting for the fertile land.

She

Come and lie underneath this tree,

And plant your human seed in me.

Make in my fertile body first

The crop for which my senses thirst.

He

I come to you because you call,

And to your passionate world I fall.

But the whole time we satiate

Our flesh, I fear the after-hate.

She

Fear nothing. Pass your hands along

My body. Hold me. You are strong.

Cast that unfeeling bag of seed

Away. Now satisfy our need.

I hate the interfering wheat.

Oh, there will be enough to eat.

“Morris developed no particular interest in designing English mansions or public buildings, stately though they might be. What he really wanted to do was to reform English taste, and to force people to furnish and decorate their homes with things that were beautiful instead of ugly” (211)

-Orcutt, William Dana. Master Makers of the Book. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1929.

The Blessed Damozel

Check out these beautiful illustrations by Kenyon Cox for a publication of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem 'The Blessed Damozel' . The works are simple and detailed with luminous light and a dreamy mood. The faces are always just a little bit off. Enjoy!

Hello!

I am starting this blog as a place to share all of the things I come across during my job working on a project on William Morris. I am learning so much, and stumbling across so much, and I want everyone to join me.

I will be posting poems by Morris and his circle, interesting facts I have learned and images from the books here at the Archives and Rare Books library in Cincinnati, Ohio.

It won't be all Morris however, I will also include whatever interesting things I come across in my day.

Enjoy!