Bodli comes to us from Icelandic literature, and in that fact we note the solidarity of poetic geniuses. Not only is the great figure of Bodli proof of this solidarity, but many other features of this poem prove it. "Lively feeling for a situation and power to express it constitute the poet," said Goethe. There are dramatic situations in "The Lovers of Gudrun" which hold the reader in a breathless state till the last word is said, and then leave him marveling at the imagination that could conceive the scene, and the power that could express it. There are gentler scenes, too, in the poem, where beauty and grace are conceived as fair as ever poet dreamed, and the workmanship is thoroughly adequate. As an example of the first, take the scene of Bodli's mourning over Kiartan's dead body. It is here that we get that knowledge of Bodli's woe that robs us of a cause against him. What agony is that which can speak thus over the body of the dead rival! ... Didst thou quite Know all the value of that dear delight As I did? Kiartan, she is changed to thee; Yea, and since hope is dead changed too to me, What shall we do, if, each of each forgiven, We three shall meet at last in that fair heaven The new faith tells of? Thee and God I pray Impute it not for sin to me to-day, If no thought I can shape thereof but this: O friend, O friend, when thee I meet in bliss, Wilt thou not give my love Gudrun to me, Since now indeed thine eyes made clear can see That I of all the world must love her most? (P. 368.) Examples of the gentler scenes are scattered lavishly throughout the poem and it is not necessary to enumerate. One other sign that the Icelandic sagaman's art was kin to the English poet's. The last line of this poem is given thus by Morris: I did the worst to him I loved the most. These are the very words of Gudrun in the saga, and summing up as they do her opinion of Kiartan, they stand as a model of that compression which is so admired in our poetry. Many such _multum in parvo_ lines are found in Morris' poem, and at times they have a beauty that is marvelous. Joined with this quality is the special merit of Morris--picturesqueness, and so the reader often feels, when he has finished a book by Morris, like the Cook tourist after he has "done" a country of Europe--it must be done again and again to give it its due.