and Mr. Morris has made good use of it. Many subjects are treated in the prologue, and perhaps it is as good as anything in the poem. A general lack of purpose will strike the reader; but for this they were prepared by the author in his introduction, where he says:
Dreamer of dreams, born out of my due time,
Why should I strive to set the crooked straight!
Let it suffice me that my running rhyme
Beats with light ring against the ivory gate,
Telling a tale, not too importunate,
To those who in the sleepy region stay,
Lull'd by the singer of an empty day.
****So with this earthly Paradise it is,
If ye will read aright, and pardon me,
Who strive to build a shadowy isle of bliss
Midmost the beating of the steely sea,
Where toss'd about all hearts of men must be;
Whose ravening monsters mighty men shall slay,
Not the poor singer of an empty day.
