George Meredith
Overview
- This article is about the British novelist "George Meredith". For the founder of SwanseaSwanseaSwansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Tasmania, see George Meredith (Tasmanian settler)George Meredith (Tasmanian settler)George Meredith was the head of the Meredith family who, with the Amos family, were the first settlers on the east coast of Tasmania. Meredith arrived in Hobart in 1821 and farmed near Swansea. Meredith's daughter Clara married Richard Dry, Tasmanian Premier and the first Australian to receive a...
.
George Meredith, OM
Order of Merit
The Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
(12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
era.
Meredith was born in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, England, a son and grandson of naval outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian School in Neuwied
Neuwied
Neuwied is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the right bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne...
, Germany, where he remained for two years.
Quotations
First of earthly singers, the sun-loved rill.
Phoebus with Admetus st. 3
Earth, the mother of all,Moves on her stedfast way,Gathering, flinging, sowing.Mortals, we live in her day,She in her children is growing.
Ode to the Spirit of Earth in Autumn, st. 14
The song seraphically freeOf taint of personality,So pure that it salutes the sunsThe voice of one for millions,In whom the millions rejoiceFor giving their one spirit voice.
The Lark Ascending, l. 95-100
But O the truth, the truth! the many eyesThat look on it! the diverse things they see!
A Ballad of Fair Ladies in Revolt st. 16 (1883)