The Poetical Works of George Meredith: With Some Notes

George Meredith · George Macaulay Trevelyan

Jan 1912 · C. Scribner's Sons

About this ebook

The poems are the texts used in the Memorial Edition of Meredith's works. The 'early' poems were primarily written in or about 1849, when the poet was twenty-one years old. Meredith was a poet/novelist, but his poetry follows the same course of development as his novels, moving from early examinations of the self in society to a later concern with broader social issues and defiance of the conventions of the form. Meredith explored new meters and stanzaic forms and experimented dramatically with syntax and grammar. His poetry has been described as verbally dense, allusive, and metaphorical, and in many ways reflective of the late nineteenth-century inclination toward aesthetic artifice.

About the author

George Meredith 1828-1909 George Meredith was born on February 12, 1828 in Portsmouth, England. He was a poet, novelist, and essayist of Victorian England and wrote 15 full-length novels, eight collections of poetry, and numerous minor works. Meredith is best known for powerful imagery, brilliant psychological insights, and carefully chosen diction. His works include The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The Egoist, The Adventures of Harry Richmond, and Diana of the Crossways. His last collection of poems A Reading of Life, with Other Poems was published in 1901. In 1905 he was awarded the Order of Merit. He died on May 18, 1909.