Internal Harmony

George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)



Assured of worthiness we do not dread
Competitors; we rather give them hail
And greeting in the lists where we may fail:
Must, if we bear an aim beyond the head!
My betters are my masters: purely fed
By their sustainment I likewise shall scale
Some rocky steps between the mount and vale;
Meanwhile the mark I have and I will wed.
So that I draw the breath of finer air,
Station is nought, nor footways laurel-strewn,
Nor rivals tightly belted for the race.
Good speed to them! My place is here or there;
My pride is that among them I have place:
And thus I keep this instrument in tune.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 16, 2023

33 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDECED
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 582
Words 113
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

George Meredith

George Meredith was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. more…

All George Meredith poems | George Meredith Books

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