A MEREDITHIAN OBSCURITY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 894, 13 August 1910, Page 9

A MEREDITHIAN OBSCURITY.

Thero has been some discussion in au English paper about the meaning of the fifth, sjxth, and seventh lines in the following passage, from "A Reading of Earth": Muster tho blood, nor read by chills, Earth admonishes: Hast thou ploughed, Sown, reaped, harvested grain for the mills, i ■/.Thou hast the light over shadow of cloud. . , Steadily eyeing, before that wail Animal-infant, thy mind began, Momently nearer me: should sight fail, Plod in the track of the husbandman. What (asked tho paper, that opened the discussion) is tho. meaning of the lines we have printed in italics, particularly of the words "Before that wail animalinfant, thy mind began?" Is it that the child's mind existed beforo birth, or does it mean just the opposite, that the "wail" signified tho birth of tho mind? Is "before," that is, a preposition or .a conjunction? In cither case how is;it to be connected with "steadily eyeing . . . momently nearer me"? One cannot tell; and perhaps it is not worth jeopardising our pleasure in poetry'by subjecting it to scrutiny like that of lawyers in the Court of Appeal on an Act of Parliament. As tho poet, himself has-said for us — Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul When hot for certainties in this our life. Mr. Basil do Selincourt wrote in comment.: "JJ'ay I offer a third explanation, which has been put. before roe from two independent sources, one of them no Jess an authority than tho author of 'George Meredith, Novelist, Poet, Reformer'? I must confess 1 stood out as long as 1 could against this explanation because it seemed to me tooi'simple and too literal; it cer-' tainly is rather a 'dusty answer' for the thirsting soul, but, as you point out, that is what it must expect. " 'Animal-infant' refers to the poet, an expletive he discharges against himself; tho ground for.; 1 it being 'That wail,' viz., the'line. * Oh for a day of the long light, one! "Before this wail, worthy only of an animal-infant, was uttered, tho poet's mind began (began, that is, tho poem) momently nearer—that is, was coming every moment nearer to me, Earth. It will bo remembered that in tho opening of the song he is beautifully describing the few objects which a narrow autumn landscape, fog-enclosed, permits to him. But tho language and' the'lesson are both rather severe for the occasion..

"Had 1 found this solution of the puzzle ior myself,, I should have had no confidence in it; if any of your readers can replace it by a better, they will be doing a kindness both to its authors and.to mo." . Another correspondent followed up with this letter: "Mr.. de. Selincourt quotes the lines — 'Steadily eyeing, before that wail Animal-infant, thy mind began, Momentarily nearer'me'; with a comma after 'wail.' In my edition, of the Poems (Constable, 1908) there is no comma after 'wail,' and the passage was so printed in your article, if my copy is right, surely 'animal-in-fant,: is not an expletive addressed by the poet to himself, but .'an adjective.' qualifying 'wail.' In fact, I notice that in his paraphrase Mr. de Selincourt seems to treat 'animal-infant' as an adjective, 'worthy only of an animal-in-fant.' Of course, the comma does not alter the sense of the passage. , , 1