Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Reading of Life, Other Poems
    A Reading of Life, Other Poems
    A Reading of Life, Other Poems
    Ebook98 pages53 minutes

    A Reading of Life, Other Poems

    By George Meredith

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    A Reading of Life, Other Poems
    Author

    George Meredith

    George Meredith (1828-1909) was an English author and poet active during the Victorian era. Holding radical liberal beliefs, Meredith first worked in the legal field, seeking justice and reading law. However, he soon abandoned the field when he discovered his true passion for journalism and poetry. After leaving this profession behind, Meredith partnered with a man named Edward Gryffdh Peacock, founding and publishing a private literary magazine. Meredith published poetry collections, novels, and essays, earning him the acclaim of a respected author. Praised for his integrity, intelligence, and literary skill, Meredith was nominated for seven Nobel Prizes and was appointed to the order of Merit by King Edward the Seventh in 1905.

    Read more from George Meredith

    Related to A Reading of Life, Other Poems

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Something About John Coltrane

      Sep 1, 2021

      Something about a tree in shallow sleepListening for what it wants to remember: The note of a seed, its neck sliding throughDirt and its confusion—nothing cleansed Of struggle. The weight lost after death,A confrontation of death. John Coltrane Even

      5 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jan 1, 2020

      How slow is all of this dying? Across the county linea fossil in the making, off-road exhaling last lightin nightmud. A small cat in a steel trap. Pendulous sparrows preen. Holding on for the last bluedark nightwe ate fruited scabs off each other’s m

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      The Call Of The Wild

      Nov 30, 2020

      The Call Of The Wild
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Epic Of Gilgamesh

      Jan 1, 2020

      My friends, who can reach heaven? The monster bellows like a river swollen with flood.Many are consumed in his fiery breath. My friends, who can reach heaven? Let us ask the mountain for a sign.Let us cut the spirits from the cedars. My friends, who

      3 min read

    • Article

      Earth Lines

      Sep 1, 2022

      Earth Lines
      4 min read

    • Article

      Spell

      Apr 25, 2018

      Spell
      4 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      May 1, 2019

      “My arm is so brown and so beautiful,” is a thought I haveas I’m about to turn off the lamp and go to sleep.I look at it a moment in the soft glow, and see it, briefly,as though it belonged to someone else. A reddishkind of brown, like a toasted almo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 2, 2020

      Some people jump, some people dive,Others inch by inch arrive And give themselves up to the chill,Piecemeal, with a grudging will: First toes, then ankles tempt the cold,And backs of knees, that, tender, fold, Then thighs that start to pimple, blo

      2 min read

    • Article

      RHYME & REASON

      May 17, 2021

      RHYME & REASON
      1 min read

    • Article

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2020

      The American linden sways nonplussed by the storm,a bounce here, a shimmy there, just shaking like musicleft over from the night’s end wafting into the avenues before sleep.I remember once walking down Clinton Street, and singingthat line returning,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      When the call cameshe ran. Outside, outthe back door, screamingNo No, got to thefence and ran back, droppedto her knees and pawedat the earth, clawingup handfuls of grass.She was howling. Aululation. Something I’d never heardbefore. Likea wild horse

      3 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      Until The Sea Closed Over Us And The Light Was Gone

      Jul 1, 2020

      —Dante, Canto XXVI But if the truth is dreamed of toward the morning—El Paso Although it was really last summer’s song,all this summer Despacito played on as slower then I turned myself to gazeupon Juarez. The summer everything hurts my eyes, a dozen

      6 min read

    • Article

      Death’s Footsteps

      Nov 29, 2017

      Death’s Footsteps
      5 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems by Eavan Boland

      May 1, 2020

      Four Poems by Eavan Boland
      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      Moon river, swollen river, river of starholeand bright, harness river, lichen river,river we velvet with our filth.River of butter and river of witches, rivercracked open careful like egg, or burstapart, unleashing its violet load.River mouths, river

      2 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Sep 4, 2018

      In London. England. Who knows why?Perhaps this rumpled guyFrom central casting or a page of Dickens.He’s taking ordinary usTo haunts of the illustrious,Where even dull pulse quickens. A red felt hat’s dark fingered brim,Food-spotted vest are—him.A mo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2023

      This poem is for everyperson who will neverread it either by choiceor circumstance I writeit in silence wherethe most realparts of our liveslive like a shoe lostin an alley or an emptyboat in a black sea butmore like the fallenleaf on the other sideo

      2 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2021

      I learned the world through the bottoms of my feet, barein the creeks of summer, stepping on pebbles, the squidgeof moss between my toes. On hot asphalt, the hop and skipover cracks, feet already toughened by bramble, dirt, the pricklyground of pine

      4 min read

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      Migratory Tule

      Aug 29, 2023

      Migratory Tule
      3 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      That the semi-circular canal is part of my ear,not a style of Venetian waterway arch,I learned mid-air on a Huffy.That bicycles left long out in the rain split.That prepositions are tricky.That I was made part industrious,part lazy-assed. That descri

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2023

      And god created the waves and we the graves beneath, bodies madeparticulate by the force of water against water, water against rock, againsttime. I descend into the deep in a kind of prayer, listen to its centuries.Make me pay, will you, make me hurt

      3 min read

    Reviews for A Reading of Life, Other Poems

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Reading of Life, Other Poems - George Meredith

      A Reading of Life, and Other Poems, by George Meredith

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Reading of Life, and Other Poems

      by George Meredith

      Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the

      copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing

      this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.

      This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project

      Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the

      header without written permission.

      Please read the legal small print, and other information about the

      eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is

      important information about your specific rights and restrictions in

      how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a

      donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.

      **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**

      **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**

      *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****

      Title: A Reading of Life, and Other Poems

      Author: George Meredith

      Release Date: September, 1997  [EBook #1042]

      [This file was first posted on September 25, 1997]

      [Most recently updated: June 24, 2003]

      Edition: 10

      Language: English

      Scanned and proofed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

      A Reading Of Life

      Contents:

      A Reading of Life—The Vital Choice

      A Reading of Life—With The Huntress

      A Reading of Life—With The Persuader

      A Reading of Life—The Test of Manhood

      The Cageing of Ares

      The Night-Walk

      The Hueless Love

      Song In The Songless

      Union In Disseverance

      The Burden of Strength

      The Main Regret

      Alternation

      Hawarden

      At the Close

      Forest History

      A Garden Idyl

      Foresight And Patience

      The Invective of Achilles

      The Invective of Achilles—V. 225

      Marshalling of the Achaians

      Agamemnon in the Fight

      Paris and Diomedes

      Hypnos on Ida

      Clash in Arms of the Achaians And Trojans

      The Horses of Achilles

      The Mares of the Camargue

      Poem: A Reading of Life—The Vital Choice

      I.

      Or shall we run with Artemis

      Or yield the breast to Aphrodite?

      Both are mighty;

      Both give bliss;

      Each can torture if divided;

      Each claims worship undivided,

      In her wake would have us wallow.

      II.

      Youth must offer on bent knees

      Homage unto one or other;

      Earth, the mother,

      This decrees;

      And unto the pallid Scyther

      Either points us shun we either

      Shun or too devoutly follow.

      Poem: A Reading of Life—With The Huntress

      Through the water-eye of night,

      Midway between eve and dawn,

      See the chase, the rout, the flight

      In deep forest; oread, faun,

      Goat-foot, antlers laid on neck;

      Ravenous all the line for speed.

      See yon wavy sparkle beck

      Sign of the Virgin Lady’s lead.

      Down her course a serpent star

      Coils and shatters at her heels;

      Peals the horn exulting, peals

      Plaintive, is it near or far.

      Huntress, arrowy to pursue,

      In and out of woody glen,

      Under cliffs that tear the blue,

      Over torrent, over fen,

      She and forest, where she skims

      Feathery, darken and relume:

      Those are her white-lightning limbs

      Cleaving loads of leafy gloom.

      Mountains hear her and call back,

      Shrewd with night: a frosty wail

      Distant: her the emerald vale

      Folds, and wonders in her track.

      Now her retinue is lean,

      Many rearward; streams the chase

      Eager forth of covert; seen

      One hot tide the rapturous race.

      Quiver-charged and crescent-crowned,

      Up on a flash the lighted mound

      Leaps she, bow to shoulder, shaft

      Strung to barb with archer’s craft,

      Legs like plaited lyre-chords, feet

      Songs to see, past pitch of sweet.

      Fearful swiftness they outrun,

      Shaggy wildness, grey or dun,

      Challenge, charge of tusks elude:

      Theirs the dance to tame the rude;

      Beast, and beast in manhood tame,

      Follow we their silver flame.

      Pride of flesh from bondage free,

      Reaping vigour of its waste,

      Marks her servitors, and she

      Sanctifies the unembraced.

      Nought of perilous she reeks;

      Valour clothes her open breast;

      Sweet beyond the thrill of sex;

      Hallowed by the sex confessed.

      Huntress arrowy to pursue,

      Colder she than sunless dew,

      She, that breath of upper air;

      Ay, but never lyrist sang,

      Draught of Bacchus never sprang

      Blood the bliss of Gods to share,

      High o’er sweep of eagle wings,

      Like the run with her, when rings

      Clear her rally, and her dart,

      In the forest’s cavern heart,

      Tells of her victorious aim.

      Then is pause and chatter, cheer,

      Laughter at some satyr lame,

      Looks upon the fallen deer,

      Measuring his noble crest;

      Here a favourite in her train,

      Foremost mid her nymphs, caressed;

      All applauded.  Shall she reign

      Worshipped?  O to be with her there!

      She,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1