The Haystack in the Floods

"The Haystack in the Floods", is a narrative poem of 160 lines by William Morris, first published in The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems in 1858. It is probably his best-known poem. It is a grimly realistic piece set during the Hundred Years' War in which the doomed lovers Jehane and Robert, having been chased down by Godmar and his knights, have a last parting in a convincingly portrayed rain-swept French countryside.

Three passages from it are most often quoted:

The in medias res opening:

Had she come all the way for this,
To part at last without a kiss?
Yea, had she borne the dirt and rain
That her own eyes might see him slain
Beside the haystack in the floods?

Godmar's threat to Jehane:

Eh? lies my Jehane? by God's head,
At Paris folks would deem them true!
Do you know, Jehane, they cry for you,
'Jehane the brown! Jehane the brown!
Give us Jehane to burn or drown!'

And the forlorn conclusion, following Robert's brutal slaying by Godmar:

She shook her head and gazed awhile
At her cold hands with a rueful smile,
As though this thing had made her mad.
This was the parting that they had
Beside the haystack in the floods.

The poem succeeds because of its narrative pace, rather than ostentatiously-crafted language. It was one of the poems from Morris' early romantic period which were brought to the fore by historian E. P. Thompson (himself a published poet) in his 1955 biography of Morris.

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