Poem by George Meredith

Modern Love. Sonnet 18. Here Jack and Tom are Paired

Here Jack and Tom are paired with Moll and Meg.
Curved open to the river-reach is seen
A country merry-making on the green.
Fair space for signal shakings of the leg.
That little screwy fiddler from his booth,
Whence flows one nut-brown stream, commands the joints
Of all who caper here at various points.
I have known rustic revels in my youth:
The May-fly pleasures of a mind at ease.
An early goddess was a county lass:
A charmed Amphion-oak she tripped the grass.
What life was that I lived? The life of these?
Heaven keep them happy! Nature they seem near.
They must, I think, be wiser than I am;
They have the secret of the bull and lamb.
'Tis true that when we trace its source, 'tis beer.

1. Angela Burdett-Coutts
2. Modern Love. Sonnet 31. This Golden Head has Wit in it
3. Modern Love. Sonnet 27. Distraction is the Panacea, Sir!
4. King Harald's Trance
5. Atkins

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