Transcribed from the 1912 Times Book Club “Surrey” edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
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POEMS
VOL. II
BY
GEORGE MEREDITH
SURREY EDITION
LONDON
THE TIMES BOOK CLUB
376–384 OXFORD STREET, W.
1912
Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, Printers to his Majesty
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
TO J. M., Let Fate or Insufficiency provide | ||
LINES TO A FRIEND VISITING AMERICA, Now farewell to you! you are | ||
TIME AND SENTIMENT, I see a fair young couple in a wood, | ||
LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT, On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose | ||
THE STAR SIRIUS, Bright Sirius! that when Orion pales | ||
SENSE AND SPIRIT, The senses loving Earth or well or ill | ||
EARTH’S SECRET, Not solitarily in fields we find | ||
INTERNAL HARMONY, Assured of worthiness we do not dread | ||
GRACE AND LOVE, Two flower-enfolding crystal vases she | ||
APPRECIATION, Earth was not Earth before her sonsappeared, | ||
THE DISCIPLINE OF WISDOM, Rich labour is the struggle to be wise | ||
THE STATE OF AGE, Rub thou thy battered lamp: nor claim norbeg | ||
In Progress you have little faith, sayyou: | ||
THE WORLD’S ADVANCE, Judge mildly the tasked world; anddisincline | ||
A CERTAIN PEOPLE, As Puritans they prominently wax, | ||
THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS, That Garden of sedate Philosophy | ||
A LATER ALEXANDRIAN, An inspiration caught from dubious hues | ||
AN ORSON OF THE MUSE, Her son, albeit the Muse’s livery | ||
THE POINT OF TASTE, Unhappy poets of a sunken prime! | ||
CAMELUS SALTAT, What say you, critic, now you havebecome | ||
CONTINUED, Oracle of the market! thence you drew | ||
MY THEME, Of me and of my theme think what thouwilt: | ||
CONTINUED, ’Tis true the wisdom that my mindexacts | ||
ON THE DANGER OF WAR, Avert, High Wisdom, never vainly wooed, | ||
TO CARDINAL MANNING, I, wakeful for the skylark voice in men, | ||
TO COLONEL CHARLES, An English heart, my commandant, | ||
TO CHILDREN: FOR TYRANTS, Strike not thy dog with a stick! | ||
THE WOODS OF WESTERMAIN, Enter these enchanted woods, | ||
A BALLAD OF PAST MERIDIAN, Last night returning from my twilightwalk | ||
THE DAY OF THE DAUGHTER OF HADES, He who has looked upon Earth | ||
THE LARK ASCENDING, He rises and begins to round, | ||
PHOEBUS WITH ADMETUS, When by Zeus relenting the mandate wasrevoked, | ||
MELAMPUS, With love exceeding a simple love of thethings | ||
LOVE IN THE VALLEY, Under yonder beech-tree single on thegreensward, | ||
THE THREE SINGERS TO YOUNG BLOOD, Carols nature, counsel men, | ||
THE ORCHARD AND THE HEATH, I chanced upon an early walk to spy | ||
EARTH AND MAN, On her great venture, Man, | ||
A BALLAD OF FAIR LADIES IN REVOLT, See the sweet women, friend, that leanbeneath | ||
Ballads andpoems of Tragic Life | ||
THE TWO MASKS, Melpomene among her livid people, | ||
ARCHDUCHESS ANNE, | ||
I. | In middle age an evil thing |
|
II. | Archduchess Anne sat carved in frost |
|
III. | Old Kraken read a missive penned |
|
Queen Theodolind has built | ||
A PREACHING FROM A SPANISH BALLAD, Ladies who in chains of wedlock | ||
THE YOUNG PRINCESS, | ||
I. | When the South sang like a nightingale |
|
II. | The lords of the Court they sighed heart-sick, |
|
III. | Lord Dusiote sprang from priest and squire; |
|
IV. | The soft night-wind went laden to death |
|
KING HARALD’S TRANCE, Sword in length a reaping-hook amain | ||
WHIMPER OF SYMPATHY, Hawk or shrike has done this deed | ||
YOUNG REYNARD, Gracefullest leaper, the dappled fox-cub | ||
MANFRED, Projected from the bilious Childe, | ||
HERNANI, Cistercians might crack their sides | ||
THE NUPTIALS OF ATTILA, Flat as to an eagle’s eye, | ||
ANEURIN’S HARP, Prince of Bards was old Aneurin; | ||
MEN AND MAN, Men the Angels eyed; | ||
THE LAST CONTENTION, Young captain of a crazy bark! | ||
PERIANDER, How died Melissa none dares shape inwords. | ||
The Tyrant passed, and friendlier was hiseye | ||
BELLEROPHON, Maimed, beggared, grey; seeking an alms;with nod | ||
PHAÉTHÔN, At the coming up of Phoebus the all-luminouscharioteer, | ||
A Reading ofEarth | ||
SEED-TIME, Flowers of the willow-herb are wool; | ||
HARD WEATHER, Bursts from a rending East in flaws | ||
THE SOUTH-WESTER, Day of the cloud in fleets! O day | ||
THE THRUSH IN FEBRUARY, I know him, February’s thrush, | ||
THE APPEASEMENT OF DEMETER, Demeter devastated our good land, | ||
EARTH AND A WEDDED WOMAN, The shepherd, with his eye on hazySouth, | ||
MOTHER TO BABE, Fleck of sky you are, | ||
WOODLAND PEACE, Sweet as Eden is the air, | ||
THE QUESTION WHITHER, When we have thrown off this old suit, | ||
OUTER AND INNER, From twig to twig the spider weaves | ||
Leave the uproar: at a leap | ||
DIRGE IN WOODS, A wind sways the pines, | ||
A FAITH ON TRIAL, On the morning of May, | ||
CHANGE IN RECURRENCE, I stood at the gate of the cot | ||
HYMN TO COLOUR, With Life and Death I walked when Loveappeared, | ||
MEDITATION UNDER STARS, What links are ours with orbs that are | ||
WOODMAN AND ECHO, Close Echo hears the woodman’saxe, | ||
THE WISDOM OF ELD, We spend our lives in learning pilotage, | ||
EARTH’S PREFERENCE, Earth loves her young: a preferencemanifest: | ||
SOCIETY, Historic be the survey of our kind, | ||
WINTER HEAVENS, Sharp is the night, but stars with frostalive | ||
NOTES | ||
TO J. M.
Let Fate or Insufficiency provide
Mean ends for men who what they are would be:
Penned in their narrow day no change they see
Save one which strikes the blow to brutes and pride.
Our faith is ours and comes not on a tide:
And whether Earth’s great offspring, by decree,
Must rot if they abjure rapacity,
Not argument but effort shall decide.
They number many heads in that hard flock:
Trim swordsmen they push forth: yet try thy steel.
Thou, fighting for poor humankind, wilt feel
The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew
A chasm sheer into the barrier rock,
And bring the army of the faithful through.