[ { "title": "Modern Love XXXV: It Is No Vulgar Nature", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "It is no vulgar nature I have wived.", "Secretive, sensitive, she takes a wound", "Deep to her soul, as if the sense had swooned,", "And not a thought of vengeance had survived.", "No confidences has she: but relief", "Must come to one whose suffering is acute.", "O have a care of natures that are mute!", "They punish you in acts: their steps are brief.", "What is she doing? What does she demand", "From Providence or me? She is not one", "Long to endure this torpidly, and shun", "The drugs that crowd about a woman's hand.", "At Forfeits during snow we played, and I", "Must kiss her. 'Well performed!' I said: then she:", "''Tis hardly worth the money, you agree?'", "Save her? What for? To act this wedded lie!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Meditation under Stars", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "What links are ours with orbs that are", "So resolutely far:", "The solitary asks, and they", "Give radiance as from a shield:", "Still at the death of day,", "The seen, the unrevealed.", "Implacable they shine", "To us who would of Life obtain", "An answer for the life we strain", "To nourish with one sign.", "Nor can imagination throw", "The penetrative shaft: we pass", "The breath of thought, who would divine", "If haply they may grow", "As Earth; have our desire to know;", "If life comes there to grain from grass,", "And flowers like ours of toil and pain;", "Has passion to beat bar,", "Win space from cleaving brain;", "The mystic link attain,", "Whereby star holds on star.", "", "Those visible immortals beam", "Allurement to the dream:", "Ireful at human hungers brook", "No question in the look.", "For ever virgin to our sense,", "Remote they wane to gaze intense:", "Prolong it, and in ruthlessness they smite", "The beating heart behind the ball of sight:", "Till we conceive their heavens hoar,", "Those lights they raise but sparkles frore,", "And Earth, our blood-warm Earth, a shuddering prey", "To that frigidity of brainless ray.", "Yet space is given for breath of thought", "Beyond our bounds when musing: more", "When to that musing love is brought,", "And love is asked of love's wherefore.", "'Tis Earth's, her gift; else have we nought:", "Her gift, her secret, here our tie.", "And not with her and yonder sky?", "Bethink you: were it Earth alone", "Breeds love, would not her region be", "The sole delight and throne", "Of generous Deity?", "", "To deeper than this ball of sight", "Appeal the lustrous people of the night.", "Fronting yon shoreless, sown with fiery sails,", "It is our ravenous that quails,", "Flesh by its craven thirsts and fears distraught.", "The spirit leaps alight,", "Doubts not in them is he,", "The binder of his sheaves, the sane, the right:", "Of magnitude to magnitude is wrought,", "To feel it large of the great life they hold:", "In them to come, or vaster intervolved,", "The issues known in us, our unsolved solved:", "That there with toil Life climbs the self-same Tree,", "Whose roots enrichment have from ripeness dropped.", "So may we read and little find them cold:", "Let it but be the lord of Mind to guide", "Our eyes; no branch of Reason's growing lopped;", "Nor dreaming on a dream; but fortified", "By day to penetrate black midnight; see,", "Hear, feel, outside the senses; even that we,", "The specks of dust upon a mound of mould,", "We who reflect those rays, though low our place,", "To them are lastingly allied.", "", "So may we read, and little find them cold:", "Not frosty lamps illumining dead space,", "Not distant aliens, not senseless Powers.", "The fire is in them whereof we are born;", "The music of their motion may be ours.", "Spirit shall deem them beckoning Earth and voiced", "Sisterly to her, in her beams rejoiced.", "Of love, the grand impulsion, we behold", "The love that lends her grace", "Among the starry fold.", "Then at new flood of customary morn,", "Look at her through her showers,", "Her mists, her streaming gold,", "A wonder edges the familiar face:", "She wears no more that robe of printed hours;", "Half strange seems Earth, and sweeter than her flowers." ], "linecount": "83" }, { "title": "Modern Love XXIII: 'Tis Christmas Weather", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "'Tis Christmas weather, and a country house", "Receives us: rooms are full: we can but get", "An attic-crib. Such lovers will not fret", "At that, it is half-said. The great carouse", "Knocks hard upon the midnight's hollow door,", "But when I knock at hers, I see the pit.", "Why did I come here in that dullard fit?", "I enter, and lie couched upon the floor.", "Passing, I caught the coverlet's quick beat:--", "Come, Shame, burn to my soul! and Pride, and Pain--", "Foul demons that have tortured me, enchain!", "Out in the freezing darkness the lambs bleat.", "The small bird stiffens in the low starlight.", "I know not how, but shuddering as I slept,", "I dreamed a banished angel to me crept:", "My feet were nourished on her breasts all night." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Modern Love XXXII: Full Faith I Have", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "Full faith I have she holds that rarest gift", "To beauty, Common Sense. To see her lie", "With her fair visage an inverted sky", "Bloom-covered, while the underlids uplift,", "Would almost wreck the faith; but when her mouth", "(Can it kiss sweetly? sweetly!) would address", "The inner me that thirsts for her no less,", "And has so long been languishing in drouth,", "I feel that I am matched; that I am man!", "One restless corner of my heart or head,", "That holds a dying something never dead,", "Still frets, though Nature giveth all she can.", "It means, that woman is not, I opine,", "Her sex's antidote. Who seeks the asp", "For serpent's bites? 'Twould calm me could I clasp", "Shrieking Bacchantes with their souls of wine!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Lucifer in Starlight", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose.", "Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend", "Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened,", "Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose.", "Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.", "And now upon his western wing he leaned,", "Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened,", "Now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows.", "Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars", "With memory of the old revolt from Awe,", "He reached a middle height, and at the stars,", "Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank.", "Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank,", "The army of unalterable law." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Phoebus with Admetus", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "WHEN by Zeus relenting the mandate was revoked,", " Sentencing to exile the bright Sun-God,", "Mindful were the ploughmen of who the steer had yoked,", " Who: and what a track show'd the upturn'd sod!", "Mindful were the shepherds, as now the noon severe", " Bent a burning eyebrow to brown evetide,", "How the rustic flute drew the silver to the sphere,", " Sister of his own, till her rays fell wide.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "Chirping none, the scarlet cicalas crouch'd in ranks:", " Slack the thistle-head piled its down-silk gray:", "Scarce the stony lizard suck'd hollows in his flanks:", " Thick on spots of umbrage our drowsed flocks lay.", "Sudden bow'd the chestnuts beneath a wind unheard,", " Lengthen'd ran the grasses, the sky grew slate:", "Then amid a swift flight of wing'd seed white as curd,", " Clear of limb a Youth smote the master's gate.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", "Water, first of singers, o'er rocky mount and mead,", " First of earthly singers, the sun-loved rill,", "Sang of him, and flooded the ripples on the reed,", " Seeking whom to waken and what ear fill.", "Water, sweetest soother to kiss a wound and cool,", " Sweetest and divinest, the sky-born brook,", "Chuckled, with a whimper, and made a mirror-pool", " Round the guest we welcomed, the strange hand shook.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", "Many swarms of wild bees descended on our fields:", " Stately stood the wheatstalk with head bent high:", "Big of heart we labour'd at storing mighty yields,", " Wool and corn, and clusters to make men cry!", "Hand-like rush'd the vintage; we strung the bellied skins", " Plump, and at the sealing the Youth's voice rose:", "Maidens clung in circle, on little fists their chins;", " Gentle beasties through push'd a cold long nose.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", "Foot to fire in snowtime we trimm'd the slender shaft:", " Often down the pit spied the lean wolf's teeth", "Grin against his will, trapp'd by masterstrokes of craft;", " Helpless in his froth-wrath as green logs seethe!", "Safe the tender lambs tugg'd the teats, and winter sped", " Whirl'd before the crocus, the year's new gold.", "Hung the hooky beak up aloft, the arrowhead", " Redden'd through his feathers for our dear fold.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", "Tales we drank of giants at war with gods above:", " Rocks were they to look on, and earth climb'd air!", "Tales of search for simples, and those who sought of love", " Ease because the creature was all too fair.", "Pleasant ran our thinking that while our work was good.", " Sure as fruits for sweat would the praise come fast.", "He that wrestled stoutest and tamed the billow-brood", " Danced in rings with girls, like a sail-flapp'd mast.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", "Lo, the herb of healing, when once the herb is known,", " Shines in shady woods bright as new-sprung flame.", "Ere the string was tighten'd we heard the mellow tone,", " After he had taught how the sweet sounds came.", "Stretch'd about his feet, labour done, 'twas as you see", " Red pomegranates tumble and burst hard rind.", "So began contention to give delight and be", " Excellent in things aim'd to make life kind.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", "You with shelly horns, rams! and, promontory goats,", " You whose browsing beards dip in coldest dew!", "Bulls, that walk the pastures in kingly-flashing coats!", " Laurel, ivy, vine, wreathed for feasts not few!", "You that build the shade-roof, and you that court the rays,", " You that leap besprinkling the rock stream-rent:", "He has been our fellow, the morning of our days;", " Us he chose for housemates, and this way went.", " God! of whom music", " And song and blood are pure,", " The day is never darken'd", " That had thee here obscure.", "", " NOW the North wind ceases,", " The warm South-west awakes;", " Swift fly the fleeces,", " Thick the blossom-flakes.", "", "Now hill to hill has made the stride,", "And distance waves the without-end:", "Now in the breast a door flings wide;", "Our farthest smiles, our next is friend.", "And song of England's rush of flowers", "Is this full breeze with mellow stops,", "That spins the lark for shine, for showers;", "He drinks his hurried flight, and drops.", "The stir in memory seem these things,", "Which out of moisten'd turf and clay,", "Astrain for light push patient rings,", "Or leap to find the waterway.", "'Tis equal to a wonder done,", "Whatever simple lives renew", "Their tricks beneath the father sun,", "As though they caught a broken clue:", "So hard was earth an eyewink back;", "But now the common life has come,", "The blotting cloud a dappled pack,", "The grasses one vast underhum.", "A City clothed in snow and soot,", "With lamps for day in ghostly rows,", "Breaks to the scene of hosts afoot,", "The river that reflective flows:", "And there did fog down crypts of street", "Play spectre upon eye and mouth:--", "Their faces are a glass to greet", "This magic of the whirl for South.", "A burly joy each creature swells", "With sound of its own hungry quest;", "Earth has to fill her empty wells,", "And speed the service of the nest;", "The phantom of the snow-wreath melt,", "That haunts the farmer's look abroad,", "Who sees what tomb a white night built,", "Where flocks now bleat and sprouts the clod.", "For iron Winter held her firm;", "Across her sky he laid his hand;", "And bird he starved, he stiffen'd worm;", "A sightless heaven, a shaven land.", "Her shivering Spring feign'd fast asleep,", "The bitten buds dared not unfold:", "We raced on roads and ice to keep", "Thought of the girl we love from cold.", "", " But now the North wind ceases,", " The warm South-west awakes,", " The heavens are out in fleeces,", " And earth's green banner shakes." ], "linecount": "148" }, { "title": "Modern Love XXII: What May the Woman", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "What may the woman labour to confess?", "There is about her mouth a nervous twitch.", "'Tis something to be told, or hidden:--which?", "I get a glimpse of hell in this mild guess.", "She has desires of touch, as if to feel", "That all the household things are things she knew.", "She stops before the glass. What sight in view?", "A face that seems the latest to reveal!", "For she turns from it hastily, and tossed", "Irresolute, steals shadow-like to where", "I stand; and wavering pale before me there,", "Her tears fall still as oak-leaves after frost.", "She will not speak. I will not ask. We are", "League-sundered by the silent gulf between.", "Yon burly lovers on the village green,", "Yours is a lower, and a happier star!" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Winter Heavens", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "Sharp is the night, but stars with frost alive", "Leap off the rim of earth across the dome.", "It is a night to make the heavens our home", "More than the nest whereto apace we strive.", "Lengths down our road each fir-tree seems a hive,", "In swarms outrushing from the golden comb.", "They waken waves of thoughts that burst to foam:", "The living throb in me, the dead revive.", "Yon mantle clothes us: there, past mortal breath,", "Life glistens on the river of the death.", "It folds us, flesh and dust; and have we knelt,", "Or never knelt, or eyed as kine the springs", "Of radiance, the radiance enrings:", "And this is the soul's haven to have felt." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Modern Love III: This Was the Woman", "author": "George Meredith", "lines": [ "This was the woman; what now of the man?", "But pass him. If he comes beneath a heel,", "He shall be crushed until he cannot feel,", "Or, being callous, haply till he can.", "But he is nothing:--nothing? Only mark", "The rich light striking out from her on him!", "Ha! what a sense it is when her eyes swim", "Across the man she singles, leaving dark", "All else! Lord God, who mad'st the thing so fair,", "See that I am drawn to her even now!", "It cannot be such harm on her cool brow", "To put a kiss? Yet if I meet him there!", "But she is mine! Ah, no! I know too well", "I claim a star whose light is overcast:", "I claim a phantom-woman in the Past.", "The hour has struck, though I heard not the bell!" ], "linecount": "16" } ]