Progress

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



In Progress you have little faith, say you:
Men will maintain dear interests, wreak base hates,
By force, and gentle women choose their mates
Most amorously from the gilded fighting crew:
The human heart Bellona's mad halloo
Will ever fire to dicing with the Fates.
'Now at this time,' says History, 'those two States
Stood ready their past wrestling to renew.
They sharpened arms and showed them, like the brutes
Whose haunches quiver. But a yellow blight
Fell on their waxing harvests. They deferred
The bloody settlement of their disputes
Till God should bless them better.' They did right.
And naming Progress, both shall have the word.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
124

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBACBBABDEFDE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 635
Words 111
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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