To Alex. Smith, The 'Glasgow Poet,' On His Sonnet To 'Fame'

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



Not vainly doth the earnest voice of man
Call for the thing that is his pure desire!
Fame is the birthright of the living lyre!
To noble impulse Nature puts no ban.
Nor vainly to the Sphinx thy voice was raised!
Tho' all thy great emotions like a sea,
Against her stony immortality,
Shatter themselves unheeded and amazed.
Time moves behind her in a blind eclipse:
Yet if in her cold eyes the end of all
Be visible, as on her large closed lips
Hangs dumb the awful riddle of the earth; -
She sees, and she might speak, since that wild call,
The mighty warning of a Poet's birth.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
29

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCADEEDFGFHGH
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 586
Words 112
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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    "To Alex. Smith, The 'Glasgow Poet,' On His Sonnet To 'Fame'" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/15686/to-alex.-smith,-the-'glasgow-poet,'-on-his-sonnet-to-'fame'>.

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