In a letter dated October 24, 1872 to his affectionate friend Aglaia Coronio, William Morris writes: suppose you see that Tennyson is publishing another little lot of Arthurian legend. We all know pretty well what it will be; and I confess I don't look forward to it. (1) Fourteen years earlier, Morris had published The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems. (2) In these poems, reinvents medieval romance legends and does so far more beautifully, some say, than Tennyson had done in pale and anaemic (3) Idylls of King, first installment of which was published only a year after The Defence. (4) Yet, because Tennyson's Idylls earned a far kinder response from critics than did Morris' Defence, (5) Morris' confession to Coronio may have been nothing more than a moment of bitterness remaining from Tennyson's previous success. In an earlier letter written on August 12, 1869 to Edward Williams Byron Nicholson who, as an undergraduate at Oxford, sought Morris' advice for creation of a magazine, Morris expresses his specific love for a few of Tennyson's poems: Don't think it ungracious if I take you to task for falling upon Tennyson, who after all is a great poet ... it is always unfair to judge a man by any but his best works ... I say this is much more like to be case with a lyrical poet than any other; I allow as a matter of course that Tennyson has little or no dramatic capacity, not enough for him to write even narrative poetry with success But if you think of finish of In Memoriam, pathos and feeling of May Queen delicate sentiment of you must surely allow that is a great poet. (Collected Letters, l:86) One poem in The Defence, Golden Wings, (5) tells story of du Castel beau who yearns for her gold wings in much same way that Tennyson's in his 1830 poem of that name, yearns for her anonymous he who has yet to come (Ricks, l:205-209). Both women are lonely and both women live amid similarly constructed landscapes that share, for instance, a moat and some poplars. Yet Mariana's gloomy, naturalistic surroundings starkly contrast with lovely, brightly colored appearance of Jehane's medieval castle in opening lines of Morris' poem. Compared to passive and aweary Jehane could be considered an empowered woman who recognizes her inner sadness despite joy and beauty of community around her. The question of empowerment here, however, is just as evasive, ambiguous, and spectral as poem Golden Wings is itself. In a turn away from traditional readings of poem, I would like to argue that rather than waiting her entire life for arrival of her lover as does Jehane takes it upon herself to find him, and ultimately--as Morris leads us to believe, though never directly tells us--upon meeting her lover, Jehane stabs him with the great (l. 183), which breaks and remains in her victim, leaving him stiffen'd in rotting leaky boat where lovers are supposed to kiss. She then uses remaining part of broken sword to end herself, leaving her body on hard yellow sand (l. 208). Despite argument frequently made by his contemporary critics that his poetry is too far removed from Victorian culture, (7) I would like to use this short article to propose that Morris' poem, if read as a response to Mariana, advances his own imagination of a Victorian woman who no longer remains patiently submissive to her male counterpart, but who instead proactively and dangerously seeks him out-even at expense of ostensible happiness of community at large. Golden Wings therefore modifies and reshapes Tennyson's earlier conception of a Victorian woman trapped by her longing. More importantly, poem anticipates and possibly even participates in development of frightening images of Odd Woman and New Woman, as represented by femmes fatales characters that become popular at fin de siecle, even though Morris had written poem nearly half a century before those depictions entered popular imagination. …