Poems — Volume 3

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. III

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
A STAVE OF ROVING TIM, The wind is East, the wind is West,	[1]
JUMP-TO-GLORY JANE, A revelation came on Jane,	[5]
THE RIDDLE FOR MEN, This Riddle rede or die,	[14]
THE SAGE ENAMOURED AND THE HONEST LADY, One fairest of the ripe unwedded left	[15]
‘LOVE IS WINGED FOR TWO,’	[30]
‘ASK, IS LOVE DIVINE,’	[30]
‘JOY IS FLEET,’	[31]
THE LESSON OF GRIEF, Not ere the bitter herb we taste,	[31]
WIND ON THE LYRE, That was the chirp of Ariel	[32]
THE YOUTHFUL QUEST, His Lady queen of woods to meet,	[33]
THE EMPTY PURSE, Thou, run to the dry on this waysidebank,	[34]
TO THE COMIC SPIRIT, Sword of Common Sense!—	[56]
YOUTH IN MEMORY, Days, when the ball of our vision	[68]
PENETRATION AND TRUST, Sleek as a lizard at round of a stone,	[75]
NIGHT OF FROST IN MAY, With splendour of a silver day,	[76]
THE TEACHING OF THE NUDE, A Satyr spied a Goddess in her bath,	[79]
BREATH OF THE BRIAR, O briar-scents, on yon wet wing	[81]
EMPEDOCLES, He leaped. With none to hinder,	[82]
ENGLAND BEFORE THE STORM, The day that is the night of days,	[83]
TARDY SPRING, Now the North wind ceases,	[85]
THE LABOURER, For a Heracles in his fighting ire there isnever the glory that follows	[87]
FORESIGHT AND PATIENCE, Sprung of the father blood, the motherbrain,	[89]
THE WARNING, We have seen mighty men ballooning high,	[99]
OUTSIDE THE CROWD, To sit on History in an easy chair,	[99]
TRAFALGAR DAY, He leads: we hear our Seaman’scall	[100]
Odes inContribution to the Song of French History
THE REVOLUTION, Not yet had History’s Aetna smoked theskies,	[105]
NAPOLÉON, Cannon his name,	[116]
FRANCE, We look for her that sunlike stood	[140]
ALSACE-LORRAINE, The sister Hours in circles linked,	[150]
THE CAGEING OF ARES, How big of breast our Mother Gaealaughed	[170]
THE NIGHT-WALK, Awakes for me and leaps from shroud	[175]
AT THE CLOSE, To Thee, dear God of Mercy, both appeal,	[178]
A GARDEN IDYL, With sagest craft Arachne worked	[179]
A Reading ofLife
THE VITAL CHOICE, Or shall we run with Artemis	[185]
WITH THE HUNTRESS, Through the water-eye of night,	[186]
WITH THE PERSUADER, Who murmurs, hither, hither: who	[189]
THE TEST OF MANHOOD, Like a flood river whirled at rockybanks,	[200]
THE HUELESS LOVE, Unto that love must we through fireattain,	[208]
UNION IN DISSEVERANCE, Sunset worn to its last vermilion he;	[209]
SONG IN THE SONGLESS, They have no song, the sedges dry,	[210]
THE BURDEN OF STRENGTH, If that thou hast the gift of strength, thenknow	[210]
THE MAIN REGRET, Seen, too clear and historic within us, oursins of omission	[211]
ALTERNATION, Between the fountain and the rill	[211]
FOREST HISTORY, Beneath the vans of doom did men passin.	[212]
Fragments of theIliad in English Hexameter Verse
THE INVECTIVE OF ACHILLES, ‘Heigh me! brazen of front, thouglutton for plunder, how can one, ‘Bibber besotted, with scowl of a cur,having heart of a deer, thou!	[221]
MARSHALLING OF THE ACHAIANS, Like as a terrible fire feeds fast on aforest enormous,	[225]
AGAMEMNON IN THE FIGHT, These, then, he left, and away where rankswere now clashing the thickest,	[227]
PARIS AND DIOMEDES, So he, with a clear shout of laughter,	[228]
HYPNOS ON IDA, They then to fountain-abundant Ida, motherof wild beasts,	[230]
CLASH IN ARMS OF THE ACHAIANS AND TROJANS, Not the sea-wave so bellows abroad when itbursts upon shingle,	[231]
THE HORSES OF ACHILLES, So now the horses of Aiakides, off wide ofthe war-ground,	[232]
THEMARES OF THE CAMARGUE, A hundred mares, all white! their manes	[234]
‘ATKINS’, Yonder’s the man with his life in hishand,	[236]
THE VOYAGE OF THE ‘OPHIR’, Men of our race, we send you one	[237]
THE CRISIS, Spirit of Russia, now has come	[239]
OCTOBER 21, 1905, The hundred years have passed, and he	[241]
THE CENTENARY OF GARIBALDI, We who have seen Italia in the throes,	[243]
THE WILD ROSE, High climbs June’s wild rose,	[245]
THE CALL, Under what spell are we debased	[247]
ON COMO, A rainless darkness drew o’er thelake	[250]
MILTON, What splendour of imperial station man,	[251]
IRELAND, Fire in her ashes Ireland feels	[253]
THE YEARS HAD WORN THEIR SEASONS’ BELT, The years had worn their seasons’belt,	[255]
FRAGMENTS, Open horizons round, A wilding little stubble flower From labours through the night, outworn, This love of nature, that allures totake	[257]
IL Y A CENT ANS, That march of the funereal Past behold;	[259]
YOUTHIN AGE, Once I was part of the music I heard	[261]
Epitaphs
TO A FRIEND LOST, When I remember, friend, whom lost Icall,	[265]
M. M., Who call her Mother and who calls herWife	[265]
THE LADY C. M., To them that knew her, there is vitalflame	[266]
ON THE TOMBSTONE OF JAMES CHRISTOPHER WILSON, Thou our beloved and light of Earth hastcrossed	[266]
GORDON OF KHARTOUM, Of men he would have raised to light hefell:	[266]
J. C. M., A fountain of our sweetest, quick tospring	[267]
THE EMPEROR FREDERICK OF OUR TIME, With Alfred and St. Louis he doth win	[267]
ISLET THE DACHS, Our Islet out of Helgoland, dismissed	[267]
ON HEARING THE NEWS FROM VENICE, Now dumb is he who waked the world tospeak,	[268]
HAWARDEN, When comes the lighted day for men toread	[269]
AT THE FUNERAL, Her sacred body bear: the tenement	[270]
ANGELA BURDETT-COUTTS, Long with us, now she leaves us; she hasrest	[270]
THE YEAR’S SHEDDINGS, The varied colours are a fitful heap:	[270]