Poems — Volume 1

by George Meredith

Transcribed from the 1912 Times Book Club “Surrey Edition” by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

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POEMS
VOL. I

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
CHILLIANWALLAH, Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!		[1]
THE DOE: A FRAGMENT, And—‘Yonder look! yoho!yoho!		[3]
BEAUTY ROHTRAUT, What is the name of King Ringang’sdaughter?		[9]
THE OLIVE BRANCH, A dove flew with an Olive Branch;		[11]
SONG, Love within the lover’s breast		[16]
THE WILD ROSE AND THE SNOWDROP, The Snowdrop is the prophet of theflowers;		[17]
THE DEATH OF WINTER, When April with her wild blue eye		[19]
SONG, The moon is alone in the sky		[21]
JOHN LACKLAND, A wicked man is bad enough on earth;		[21]
THE SLEEPING CITY, A Princess in the eastern tale		[22]
THE POETRY OF CHAUCER, Grey with all honours of age! butfresh-featured and ruddy		[27]
THE POETRY OF SPENSER, Lakes where the sunsheen is mystic withsplendour and softness;		[27]
THE POETRY OF SHAKESPEARE, Picture some Isle smiling green ’midthe white-foaming ocean;—		[28]
THE POETRY OF MILTON, Like to some deep-chested organ whose grandinspiration,		[28]
THE POETRY OF SOUTHEY, Keen as an eagle whose flight towards thedim empyréan		[29]
THE POETRY OF COLERIDGE, A brook glancing under green leaves,self-delighting, exulting,		[29]
THE POETRY OF SHELLEY, See’st thou a Skylark whose glisteningwinglets ascending		[30]
THE POETRY OF WORDSWORTH, A breath of the mountains, fresh born in theregions majestic,		[30]
THE POETRY OF KEATS, The song of a nightingale sent thro’ aslumbrous valley,		[31]
VIOLETS, Violets, shy violets!		[31]
ANGELIC LOVE, Angelic love that stoops with heavenlylips		[32]
TWILIGHT MUSIC, Know you the low pervading breeze		[34]
REQUIEM, Where faces are hueless, where eyelids aredewless,		[36]
THE FLOWER OF THE RUINS, Take thy lute and sing		[37]
THE RAPE OF AURORA, Never, O never,		[40]
SOUTH-WEST WIND IN THE WOODLAND, The silence of preluded song—		[42]
WILL O’ THE WISP, Follow me, follow me,		[46]
SONG, Fair and false! No dawn will greet		[49]
SONG, Two wedded lovers watched the risingmoon,		[50]
SONG, I cannot lose thee for a day,		[51]
DAPHNE, Musing on the fate of Daphne,		[52]
LONDON BY LAMPLIGHT, There stands a singer in the street,		[68]
SONG, Under boughs of breathing May,		[73]
PASTORALS, How sweet on sunny afternoons,		[74]
TO A SKYLARK, O skylark! I see thee and call thee joy!		[74]
SONG—SPRING, When buds of palm do burst and spread		[85]
SONG—AUTUMN, When nuts behind the hazel-leaf		[85]
SORROWS AND JOYS, Bury thy sorrows, and they shall rise		[86]
SONG, The Flower unfolds its dawning cup,		[88]
SONG, Thou to me art such a spring		[89]
ANTIGONE, The buried voice bespake Antigone.		[90]
‘SWATHED ROUND IN MIST ANDCROWN’D WITH CLOUD,’		[92]
SONG, No, no, the falling blossom is no sign		[93]
THE TWO BLACKBIRDS, A Blackbird in a wicker cage,		[94]
JULY, Blue July, bright July,		[96]
SONG, I would I were the drop of rain		[98]
SONG, Come to me in any shape!		[99]
THE SHIPWRECK OF IDOMENEUS, Swept from his fleet upon that fatalnight		[100]
THE LONGEST DAY, On yonder hills soft twilight dwells		[112]
TO ROBIN REDBREAST, Merrily ’mid the faded leaves,		[114]
SONG, The daisy now is out upon the green;		[115]
SUNRISE, The clouds are withdrawn		[117]
PICTURES OF THE RHINE, The spirit of Romance dies not to those		[120]
TO A NIGHTINGALE, O nightingale! how hast thou learnt		[123]
INVITATION TO THE COUNTRY, Now ’tis Spring on wood and wold,		[124]
THE SWEET O’ THE YEAR, Now the frog, all lean and weak,		[126]
AUTUMN EVEN-SONG, The long cloud edged with streaming grey		[128]
THE SONG OF COURTESY, When Sir Gawain was led to hisbridal-bed,		[129]
THE THREE MAIDENS, There were three maidens met on thehighway;		[131]
OVER THE HILLS, The old hound wags his shaggy tail,		[132]
JUGGLING JERRY, Pitch here the tent, while the old horsegrazes:		[134]
THE CROWN OF LOVE, O might I load my arms with thee,		[139]
THE HEAD OF BRAN THE BLEST, When the Head of Bran		[141]
THE MEETING, The old coach-road through a common offurze,		[145]
THE BEGGAR’S SOLILOQUY, Now, this, to my notion, is pleasantcheer,		[146]
BY THE ROSANNA TO F. M., The old grey Alp has caught the cloud,		[151]
PHANTASY, Within a Temple of the Toes,		[152]
THE OLD CHARTIST, Whate’er I be, old England is mydam!		[158]
SONG, Should thy love die;		[163]
TO ALEX. SMITH, THE ‘GLASGOWPOET,’ Not vainly doth the earnest voice of man		[164]
GRANDFATHER BRIDGEMAN, ‘Heigh, boys!’ cried GrandfatherBridgeman, ‘it’s time before dinnerto-day.’		[165]
THE PROMISE IN DISTURBANCE, How low when angels fall their blackdescent,		[180]
MODERN LOVE,		[181]
I.	By this he knew she wept with waking eyes:
II.	It ended, and the morrow brought the task.
III.	This was the woman; what now of the man?
IV.	All other joys of life he strove to warm,
V.	A message from her set his brain aflame.
VI.	It chanced his lips did meet her forehead cool.
VII.	She issues radiant from her dressing-room,
VIII.	Yet it was plain she struggled, and that salt
IX.	He felt the wild beast in him betweenwhiles
X.	But where began the change; and what’s my crime?
XI.	Out in the yellow meadows, where the bee
XII.	Not solely that the Future she destroys,
XIII.	‘I play for Seasons; not Eternities!’
XIV.	What soul would bargain for a cure that brings
XV.	I think she sleeps: it must be sleep, when low
XVI.	In our old shipwrecked days there was an hour,
XVII.	At dinner, she is hostess, I am host.
XVIII.	Here Jack and Tom are paired with Moll and Meg.
XIX.	No state is enviable. To the luck alone
XX.	I am not of those miserable males
XXI.	We three are on the cedar-shadowed lawn;
XXII.	What may the woman labour to confess?
XXIII.	’Tis Christmas weather, and a country house
XXIV.	The misery is greater, as I live!
XXV.	You like not that French novel? Tell me why.
XXVI.	Love ere he bleeds, an eagle in high skies,
XXVII.	Distraction is the panacea, Sir!
XXVIII.	I must be flattered. The imperious
XXIX.	Am I failing? For no longer can I cast
XXX.	What are we first? First, animals; and next
XXXI.	This golden head has wit in it. I live
XXXII.	Full faith I have she holds that rarest gift
XXXIII.	‘In Paris, at the Louvre, there have I seen
XXXIV.	Madam would speak with me. So, now it comes:
XXXV.	It is no vulgar nature I have wived.
XXXVI.	My Lady unto Madam makes her bow.
XXXVII.	Along the garden terrace, under which
XXXVIII.	Give to imagination some pure light
XXXIX.	She yields: my Lady in her noblest mood
XL.	I bade my Lady think what she might mean.
XLI.	How many a thing which we cast to the ground,
XLII.	I am to follow her. There is much grace
XLIII.	Mark where the pressing wind shoots javelin-like
XLIV.	They say, that Pity in Love’s service dwells,
XLV.	It is the season of the sweet wild rose,
XLVI.	At last we parley: we so strangely dumb
XLVII.	We saw the swallows gathering in the sky,
XLVIII.	Their sense is with their senses all mixed in,
XLIX.	He found her by the ocean’s moaning verge,
L.	Thus piteously Love closed what he begat:
THE PATRIOT ENGINEER, ‘Sirs! may I shake your hands?		[231]
CASSANDRA, Captive on a foreign shore,		[236]
THE YOUNG USURPER, On my darling’s bosom		[240]
MARGARET’S BRIDAL EVE, The old grey mother she thrummed on herknee:		[241]
MARIAN, She can be as wise as we,		[248]
BY MORNING TWILIGHT, Night, like a dying mother,		[249]
UNKNOWN FAIR FACES, Though I am faithful to my loves livedthrough,		[249]
SHEMSELNIHAR, O my lover! the night like a broad smoothwave		[250]
A ROAR THROUGH THE TALL TWIN ELM-TREES, A roar thro’ the tall twinelm-trees		[252]
WHEN I WOULD IMAGE, When I would image her features,		[252]
THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE, Thy greatest knew thee, Mother Earth;unsoured		[253]
CONTINUED, How smiles he at a generation ranked		[253]
ODE TO THE SPIRIT OF EARTH IN AUTUMN, Fair Mother Earth lay on her back lastnight,		[254]
MARTIN’S PUZZLE, There she goes up the street with her bookin her hand,		[261]