Modern Love: XXXIV

By George Meredith 1828–1909 George Meredith

Madam would speak with me. So, now it comes:

The Deluge or else Fire! She's well, she thanks

My husbandship. Our chain on silence clanks.

Time leers between, above his twiddling thumbs.

Am I quite well? Most excellent in health!

The journals, too, I diligently peruse.

Vesuvius is expected to give news:

Niagara is no noisier. By stealth

Our eyes dart scrutinizing snakes. She's glad

I'm happy, says her quivering under-lip.

"And are not you?" "How can I be?" "Take ship!

For happiness is somewhere to be had."

"Nowhere for me!" Her voice is barely heard.

I am not melted, and make no pretence.

With commonplace I freeze her, tongue and sense.

Niagara or Vesuvius is deferred.

Biography

George Meredith was a major Victorian novelist whose career developed in conjunction with an era of great change in English literature during the second half of the nineteenth century. While his early novels largely conformed to Victorian literary conventions, his later novels demonstrated a concern with character psychology, modern social problems, and the development of the novel form that has led to his being considered an . . .

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