The  late  James  Ashcroft  Noble  was  never  a  critic  given  to
enthusiasms,  so  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  him  somewhat
coldly  critical  of  Meredith's  poetry,  but  his  observations  are  of  real
importance,  and  several  passages  from  his  essay  which  appeared
in  the  first  edition  of  Mr. A. H. Miles 's  admirable  work  '  The
Poets  and  the  Poetry  of  the  Century, '  are  worthy  of  consideration  :

In  speaking  of  Mr. Meredith's  poetry  (he  writes)  the  first  thing
needing  to  be  said  is  that  his  prose  achievement  is  a  natural  growth,
while  his  work  in  verse  is  a  product  of  deliberate  choice. His  speak-
ing voice  is  an  affair  of  organisation ;  his  singing  voice  is  the  result
of  careful  training. Some  fervid   devotees   have  had   the  teoierity


264  GEORGE    MEREDITH

to  place  him  at  the  head  of  living  novelists ;  no  admirer,  howsoever
indiscriminating,  would  dare  to  place  him  even  in  the  front  rank
of  living  poets ;  and  yet  the  qualities  which  give  to  his  work
permanent  interest  and  value  are  more  clearly  visible  here  and  there
in  his  verse  than  in  any  of  his  novels,  save  perhaps  in  one  or  two
passages,  such  as  the  description  of  the  early  meetings  of  Richard
Feverel  and  Lucy  Desborough,  where  the  form  only  is  that  of  prose,
while  the  emotional  pitch  and  imaginative  plane  are  the  pitch  and
plane  of  poetry. Such  a  chapter  as  that  entitled  '  Ferdinand  and
Miranda '  has  the  Miltonic  essentials  of  poetry ;  it  is  simple,
sensuous,  passionate;  and  even  a  person  of  very  moderate  sensi-
bility will  be  aware  in  reading  it  that  he  is  in  the  presence  of  a
writer  with  the  poet's  capacity  of  feeling  and  rendering,  and  possibly
or  probably,  therefore,  the  poet's  command  of  that  medium  of
utterance  in  which  such  capacity  naturally  expresses  itself. If,
however,  he  turns  from  such  a  passage  to  one  of  Mr. Meredith's
slim  volumes  of  verse,  his  disappointment  will  probably  be  great
and  bitter,  unless  some  rare  guidance  of  happy  fortune  leads  him
to  the  small  group  of  poems  of  which  later  on  something  must  be
said. 