George Meredith

  • From “Modern Love”
    AT dinner she is hostess, I am host.
    Went the feast ever cheerfuller? She keeps
    The topic over intellectual deeps
    In buoyancy afloat. They see no ghost.
    With sparkling surface-eyes we ply the ball:
    It is in truth a most contagious...

  • He rises and begins to round,
    He drops the silver chain of sound
    Of many links without a break,
    In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake,
    All intervolved and spreading wide,
    Like water-dimples down a tide
    Where ripple ripple overcurls
    And eddy...

  • Under yonder beech-tree standing on the green sward,
    Couched with her arms behind her little head,
    Her knees folded up, and her tresses on her bosom,
    Lies my young love sleeping in the shade.
    Had I the heart to slide one arm beneath her!
    Press her dreaming...