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is no basis for religionistic comforts "These are our sensual dreams," he avers -but there is firm basis for the belief that here in this world, through constant struggle, "from flesh to spirit man grows." Growth in each individual is only a part, though a very essential part, of Life's development in nature and mankind as a whole. In such growth we, as individuals, can learn to find our happiness, by subduing not without the aid of the "Comic Spirit" the old cravings of "Self." The way of wisdom, of honest obedience to brain, is to suffer none of the old delusions, the old "Legends," but to accept the stringent "medical herb" that Earth proffers, the strength, the stimulant, that we win when in real (not sentimental) contact with "our only visible friend." We are to acknowledge our stern mother, and to love her unreservedly; awake to her beauty, responsive to her keen vitality, and aware that beneath her sternness is a deep heart of joy.

Naturally the general reader has not been captivated by such stoicism, conveyed as it is in a style compressed, contorted, often obscure, a style like nature's cliffs and caves, and entwined branches, and great roots groping into the soil. "Thousands who have lived by Wordsworth's gift of faith, Arnold's of endurance, Tennyson's of wisdom, Browning's of joy, will turn away from this proffer of strength as one not receivable by human sorrow till other gifts have gone before it" (John Bailey). Certain "other gifts," no doubt, helped Meredith himself to grow - to come with fine wholesomeness of spirit through his early struggles and unhappy love (see the introductory note under "I Play for Seasons," below); through his continued lack of public recognition; and through his loss of great domestic happiness in the death of his second wife (1885). His poem "A Faith on Trial" (1888) should be read by all who wish to see his creed, and his manhood, confronting his personal grief. But there are times when any reader, whatever his prevailing outlook on life, may find delight and sustenance in Meredith's strength of mind and will, his swift wit, his unflinching vision.

Moreover, it is becoming apparent that

his poetry gives the profoundest form of that "Naturalism" or "Vitalism," as it is sometimes called - which, in one form or another, has been the most persistent power in literature since 1860. That power is being worshipped assiduously by the "new poets" and "new novelists" of England and America at the present time. To cope with Meredith's poetic thought and imagination is to penetrate more deeply into our own. Incidentally, certain of the extracts from his poetry given in this book will be found to illuminate many later poems, from Swinburne to Masefield, as suggested throughout the notes below. In studying Meredith's poetic thought, perhaps the main thing to keep in mind is that, in reacting from the transcendental ideas of his predecessors, which seemed to him debilitating, he stretched the concept of "Earth" or "Nature" to include high values which have from of old been assigned to transcendent powers.

LOVE IN THE VALLEY

The daily and seasonal changes in the South England landscape that Meredith loved are here woven into an idyl so originally rausical that Tennyson, among others, was at once captivated by it. For a dramatic treatment of young love in the presence of nature, see the noted chapter XV of Meredith's Richard Feverel.

(601.) 32. Off a sunny border: along the edge of a cloud's shadow, during a sunshower. The cloud swings along (line 31) followed by the sunshine, which glints on the flowers and hail.

36. eve-jar: night-jar; a bird of the goatsucker family. (602.) 46. morning light: in contrast to the sunset (line 42). 52. like yew: like yewberries threading the dark yew-tree with color.

55-56. Maiden still etc.: Cf. Tennyson's "Tithonus," line 34 ff (page 313).

61-64. Ay, but shows the Southwest etc.: The same phenomenon, but with the clouds cleared by the wind, is used in section LXXXVI of "In Memoriam" (page 345).

74. Low-lidded twilight etc.: the

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117. yaffle: the green woodpecker; the commonest species in England, and called by many names, including "yaffle" (from its cry).

(604.) 130. link: See note on "The King's Tragedy," line 183, page 784, above.

162. Clipped: inclosed. The sun is seen at the end of the valley, coming down on to the "violet-shaded snow."

165. print-branches: the shadows of the beech-tree's branches printed on the snow by the moonlight.

(605.) 178. new surprise: newly adopted surprise. She raises her lashes in the look of wondering inquiry proper to the visit of a stranger. But like him, she had fallen in love through sight (line 180), and her friends' hints have prepared her for his visit (line 181). In the first version of the poem, the lover meets and woos the girl from the beginning; but she is reluctant to give up her freedom. In his revision, Meredith dropped the wooing, but retained and developed her maiden independence (lines 9-32); hence the compression and suddenness of the present stanza. But see lines 81-88.

204. the whitebeam: a small tree the leaves of which have a silvery down on their under side.

JUGGLING JERRY

Compare "Northern Farmer: Old Style" (page 386). Which is the better poem? (606.) 16. a Juggler: Death.

25. cricket: play cricket.

27. whip off etc.: When the batsman is not in place, the wicket-keeper may put him "out" by knocking off the bails (cross-pieces) with the ball.

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This poem marks a divergence from the Victorian view of Nature, and a resumption of the earlier Romanticist view, modified by the advance of the idea of natural evolution. (Passages of Wordsworth and Shelley, particularly, should be reviewed in connection with this and other poems of Part Three that deal with Life in man and nature.) The new attitude toward nature is part of what has been called "Naturalism" or "Vitalism" - in contrast with the esthetic outlook of the Raphaelites and others on the one hand and, on the other, with the conventionalism of everyday men. The term perhaps indicates the predominant tendency of literature during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Walt Whitman is the most influential prophet of "Vitalism"; Meredith, its most subtle and balanced exponent.

143. am I: if I am. 147-148. With faith

Pre

living

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"Lovers beneath the singing sky of May, They wandered once; clear as the dew on flowers.

But they fed not on the advancing hours: Their hearts held cravings for the buried day.

Then each applied to each the fatal knife, Deep questioning, which probes to endless. dole.

Ah! what a dusty answer gets the soul When hot for certainties in this our life!" (From section L) Meredith drew upon his own experience: his early marriage (1849) with a daughter of Thomas Love Peacock proved to be unhappy and, though it was ended only by the death of Mrs. Meredith (1860), after the first few years the two lived separately. But the story of the poem is not autobiographic; and its attitude is large. The title intends a contrast with romantic lovetragedies:

"In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: We are betrayed by what is false within." (From section XLIII)

In the present section the husband, having lost "love's great bliss" (line 14), seeks consolation in the thought of Nature's purpose and method. What passages of the "Ode to the Spirit of Earth" (page 607) are recalled?

(608.) 15. forever: is here a noun, subject of the verb "whirls."

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91. from failing blood: when passion and vitality are becoming weak.

96. taint of personality: egotism. 105-110. Yield substance etc.: These workers, though not themselves poets, have the stuff of life that is sweet for poetry to celebrate. Poetry gives us a fresh revelation of them, lifting them high like a mountain ensphered by blue heaven, because they deeply love earth.

112. pass: do without.

114. In the brain's reflex etc.: in the human mind's reflection (i.e., interpretation) of the skylark. For the bird's "self-forgetfulness," see line 27 ff.

(610.) 122. More spacious etc.: Making the more spacious region (and vision) more akin to our earth; cf. line 119.

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15-16. let life to the lower creatures.

19. gnome: an earth-spirit. — In seeking metals for weapons, early man opens up mysterious questions as to his own earthly origin; see the next

stanzas.

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23. ring: circle of activity. 51-52. And sight those folds: He must see his own dullness before he can begin to see the real meaning of Earth's symbols (lines 45-48).

(611.) 59. her cherishing of her bestendowed: In the Darwinian realm, this would be the law of "the survival of the fittest." But the very difference in phraseology reminds us that for Meredith, unlike Darwin, Nature has Spirit and purpose.

65. read her: interpret her as. 66. the passion Self: the passion of Selfishness, imaged in the next two lines as a luring "devil" and an obscuring "hood." For the opposite quality, see the

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worth: he maintains his belief in this miracle (i.e., long after the "signs" have ended) by claiming that his case is exceptional on account of his worth.

100. Her purest fires: such as devotion and reverence. Observe the spiritual qualities and purposes which the poet, from here on, attributes to Earth (Nature); and see the last sentence of the biography, above.

111-112. With grief for grief etc.: grieving that he does not perceive her near presence in his grief; see the next stanza. (612.) 147. him: the "Self" (line 138). The idea is that Self may be sublimated and enlightened (not ascetically crushed), and so become "nigh divine" (line 150).

158. his gapped readings etc.: i.e., his crude ideas of religious reward and punishment.

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north, aiming toward the pole of the universe as anciently conceived. The wider regions remind him of the vast Chaos through which he fell after his defeat in Heaven's battle.

SENSE AND SPIRIT

Compare "Earth and Man," lines 117135 (page 611).

1-6. The senses etc.: The senses cannot give us Our true relation with Nature. For either they shrink from her ("loving Earth . . . ill"), and impel the mind to shape up superstitious doctrines in religion; or they are allured by her, and impel us to follow a vague nature-idealism that overlooks uncongenial facts.

4. does: The verb is completed by "light" (i.e., illuminate), understood from the preceding line.

13-14. Solves

own: is solved in the human spirit when this has been so fashioned by Nature, through the struggle of living, that it can truly interpret her spirit.

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7. civil limitation: the conventions of civilized life. In the next line Meredith comically suggests that even the nymphs, though creatures of Nature, are affected by "civil limitation." When he deals seriously with this subject, his doctrine is that the spirit of Nature desires to win, through mankind, the best values of "civil limitation"; as in "Earth and Man,' lines 105-108 (page 611).

9. blows: spouts, like a strong

spring; cf. lines 5-6.

II. her train: her retinue in contrast with "her son” (lines 1-2).

13. the tidewaves: The "rocksource" is now imaged as flowing down into the sea of human life. - The thought is: much that is fruitful and precious in Whitman's inspiration must go lost in life's "tidewaves," lacking the buoyancy of creative form ("vessel built for sea").

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THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS

Epicurus (c. 341-270 B.C.) taught for almost forty years in his own garden at Athens. His serene and temperate philosophy was degraded by so-called Epicureans who gave themselves up to sensuality; and it was attacked by the Stoics. See also the note on "Juan and Haidée," lines 16491650 (page 680, above).

9. wouldverge: would, onward, illuminate the very last horizon; i.e., be mankind's all-sufficient guide.

12. Babels: In contrast with "wilds" in the next line, this suggests the confused and selfish struggles in civilized society. For "Babel," see Genesis, XI, I-9. - For Jesus' "scourge," see John, II, 13-17.

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TO J. M.

3-4. no change and pride: They shut their eyes to all change, except that which takes the violent form of battle or revolution.

5. Our faith -- a tide: The faith of liberal and enlightened men is not borne to its goal on a natural tide of change; it is theirs to work for and gradually establish (cf. line 8).

6-7. And whither abjure rapacity: whether mankind is destined to decay if not impelled by predatory selfishness. Mrs. See Meredith's view of the "Self" in previous poems.

Browning used the image of a spiral line for the aspiration of Art, near the end of Book Fourth of "Aurora Leigh."

II. That figure on a flat: i.e., a zigzag movement along the level, instead of the ascending spiral.

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9. hard flock: hard and fast Tories; cf. lines 1-4. Morley, who had graduated from Oxford eight years earlier, was to become a leader of advanced Liberalism in Parliament.

12. Roland: the strong hero of medieval romance, and of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso."

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