Unpublished Poems of Meredith
Sencourt, Robert
May 22, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 67 UNPUBLISHED POEMS OF MEREDITH By ROBERT SENCOURT THE following poems were written down in 1869 in the Monthly Observer, a little magazine which went round in...
...The second he put the white veil to And turned him away, and wept anew...
...This brilliant woman of thirty, the widow of a naval officer, immediately awoke passionate admiration in the young poet, then only just twenty-one...
...Ah, that thou liest on thy death bier, Thee have I loved for many a year...
...From Goethe Meredith translated two poems—the following brief lyric: Joyful And woful And thankful remain...
...At first they were rapturously happy, as an unpublished poem written by Meredith during the honeymoon attests: No more to sever our embrace Was night a sword between us, But richest mystery robed in grace To wrap us close and screen us...
...But hardest 'tis to hide a poem, Under no bushel you'll conceal it...
...The other contributions which young Meredith made to the Monthly Observer are translations from Goethe, Uhland, von Eichendorff and Heine...
...On my heart thy little head Lay down, and fear not me, Thou who daily trustest The wild, wild sea...
...A sonnet deals with faith in immortality: Hateful are those false themes of speculation, Goading the wise and harassing the weak...
...The breeze went over the fields, The ears were waving light, The woods were gently rustling So starry was the night...
...Take, says the Lord, but man says "No" But these are mine, my brother...
...No little spot so poor and low But some sweet tribute musters...
...This world of ours so lovely and unique Why is it subject to such sad vexation...
...A year or two later Wallis had himself forsaken her, and she returned from Capri to England with a son who was not Meredith's...
...Live, says the Lord, but man says "No" Thy life is mine, my brother...
...The treasures of the earth, how vast, Exhaustless and unnumbered...
...One of these was Mr...
...And of our spirits' early information, Intelligence, and action...
...Above her haloed head, the sky Is studded thick with spheres All swimming to one blissful eye Whose eye is bright with tears...
...Her hands are tented, palm to palm, When folded as in rest, Beneath her dawning eyelids calm Upon her snow-white breast, Her snowy garments rustle clear, As snowflakes rise and mix, And to her neck there presseth near A silver crucifix...
...Even as the sea, my heart Has storms, and ebb and flow, And many a beauteous pearl Lies calm in its deep below...
...to all things man says "No" And still denies his brother...
...Ah...
...Written when he was twenty-one, they show that warmth which Dante Gabriel Rossetti admired in the little volume of poems which Meredith published in 1851, and which won from Charles Kingsley the phrase that only "he who begins honestly ends greatly...
...Again 'tis hard our love to hide, For howsoever you enclose it, Out of the eyelids it softly smites you...
...They are the first poems of Meredith of which any record remains...
...And lastly Meredith made a translation of the famous and touching lyrical poem entitled The Landlady's Daughter, from Uhland: Three students went over the Rhine one day And to a good landlady made their way...
...One family are we, and Oh The children of one Mother...
...Thee loved I ever, and still I love thee, And thee shall I love through eternity...
...To all he reads it, glad and loud, Whether it fret us or instruct...
...His mood is expressed in two other unpublished poems: Every hour was golden leaved With wonders rich and new . . . And We paced a realm enchanted, A realm rose-vistaed, rich from this But not from this transplanted...
...Has he just smartly dashed it off, He writes that the whole world shall love it...
...It was edited by the contributors in turn...
...She lost her reason soon after, and died in 1863...
...With birth, life, death, mind, matter, bone and brain Can there be any doubt of our creation...
...The third again put by the veil And kissed her on the lips so pale...
...Around her gloried form, the air Is starred with falling snows That cover all the convent bare With symbolled pure repose...
...Meredith announced that he could forgive everything in her except open unfaithfulness, but that if she eloped, he would not take her back...
...The sisters stoop on either hand, She smileth mild on each, And in the wind a choral band Comes singing to her speech...
...The first from her face the white veil took And looked at her long with a sorrowful look...
...And my whole soul outspreading Her wings abroad to roam Flew through the sleeping land As if toward its home...
...The poems which follow here express Meredith's religious idealism (influenced by his years in the Moravian school at Neuwied from 1842 to 1844) as his love for Ellen Mary Nicolls was ripening...
...wer't thou alive, thou maiden flower, Thee should I love from this very hour...
...She could not resist the impetuous passion of his suit...
...And as they into the chamber stept In a black coffin they saw she slept...
...when will this dreary "No" Melt at the name of brother...
...The rapturous mood of Love in the Valley is hardly ripe yet: the poet has got hardly further than the fervent idealism which made him write down in the Monthly Observer that "the universe is but a succession of links, and we are all united in nobility and gentleness and love...
...The story of this tragedy is told in Meredith's famous sonnet sequence entitled Modern Love...
...In 1856, after a violent scene in which Meredith pleaded with her to remain with him, she announced that she was about to elope with Henry Wallis, a young painter whose pictures in the Royal Academy already showed promise of distinction...
...as well as the rather sardonic commentary to which the great German poet gave the title Gestandniss (Confession) : What is hard to hide...
...Strange is the difference which breeds Dissension among creatures Which binds the slave for slavish greeds And brands his godlike features...
...68 THE COMMONWEAL May 22, 1929 There is also a poem entitled Brotherhood: The land is rich where'er we go With flowers and fruits in clusters...
...She knoweth that the time will come, And in the deepened night Discerneth well her heaven home, The morning and the light, And through the shadow of her pain A seraph sister voice But now she meeteth once again That others may rejoice...
...To this he remained firm...
...Charnock, George Meredith's employer: another was Ellen Mary Nicolls, a daughter of Thomas Love Peacock, who ceased contributing in order to marry Meredith...
...Swaying And praying In hovering pain, Heavenward exulting Death hurled from above, Happy alone Are the souls that love...
...Her voice is heard above the wind Shrill from the northern seas...
...Has but the poet freshly sung it, Thereby is he quite overcome...
...May 22, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 67 UNPUBLISHED POEMS OF MEREDITH By ROBERT SENCOURT THE following poems were written down in 1869 in the Monthly Observer, a little magazine which went round in manuscript among its own contributors...
...The first poem is called Saint Therese: With holy earnest eyes enshrined, She bendeth on her knees...
...Religion is a war of sect, And fatherland of factions, Each deems himself the whole elect But not through virtuous actions, Not in the deeds whereby we know The light no day can smother Alas...
...Stored with the livings of the past Since first old Chaos slumbered, And is there then no thankful glow To knit us to each other, Ah God...
...Tis all for want of proper occupation, Philosophers become so void and vain...
...The fire, For by day the smoke betrays it And the flame by night, the monster...
...Now, landlady, have you good wine and beer, And how is your little daughter dear...
...This enchantment, however, could not endure the stress of poverty...
...From Heine, My Heart: Thou lovely fishermaiden Steer in thy boat to land Come to me and sit thee down We'll whisper, hand in hand...
...Chief whereby Through rapid glances of the inner eye, The soul is sentient of its own salvation, And in the faith which such a knowledge brings Feels the bright glory of its future wings...
...Abundance blesses, all things show We should bless one another...
...From von Eichendorff, Moonlight: It was as if the heaven Had kissed earth with its beam That she in blooming glimmer Must sweetly of it dream...
Vol. 10 • May 1929 • No. 3
