William Morris Archive

Early Morris Poems - "Frank's Sealed Letter"

Song from "Frank's Sealed Letter" ("Wearily, drearily")

Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, March 1856, 230. Later included in The Defence of Guenevere under the title, "In Prison" (1858 ed., 247-48).

Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, March 1856, 230.

Wearily, drearily,
Half the day long,
Flap the great banners
High over the stone;
Strangely and eerily
Sounds the wind’s song,
Bending the banner-poles.

"While, all alone,
Watching the loophole’s spark,
Lie I, with life all dark,
Feet tether’d, hands fetter’d
Fast to the stone,
The grim walls, square letter’d,
With prison’d men’s groan.

"Still strain the banner-poles
Through the wind’s song,
Westward the banner rolls
Over my wrong.

The Defence of Guenevere [247-48]

IN PRISON.

Wearily, dreaily,
Half the day long,
Flap the great banners
High over the stone;

Strangely and eerily
Sounds the wind’s song,
Bending the banner-poles.

While, all alone,
Watching the loophole’s spark,
Lie I, with life all dark,
Feet tether’d, hands fetter’d
Fast to the stone,
The grim walls, square letter’d
With prison’d men’s groan.

[148] Still strain the banner-poles
Through the wind’s song,
Westward the banner rolls
Over my wrong.