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How All Occasions Do Inform: "Household Matters" and Domestic Vignettes in George Meredith's Modern Love

How All Occasions Do Inform: "Household Matters" and Domestic Vignettes in George Meredith's... ALAN P. BARR been recognized as a challengingly, troublingly modern poem. Successive generations found it contemporary and pertinent. In 1862 the poem irked and even scandalized reviewers for its disturbing tastelessness and for what seemed its vulgar, amoral undressing of marital relations. The young Swinburne, an avatar of the new and shocking, was rare among the poem's first reviewers for his admiring letter in the Spectator of that year.1 Apprehension about the poem's indecency, however, quickly yielded to appreciations of its art and then examinations of its richness--in form, in style, in narration, and in imagery. Meredith mimes the courtly sonnet tradition to reveal a tale of marital disarray. The poem's images, which have been widely discussed, combine to depict domestic scenes from this marriage, scenes that are sharp, lucid, and forceful. The emotions--essentially those of the husband-- highlight the personal tensions and interpersonal "games" of the couple (what might now be termed "the family dynamics"). Meredith's form, his images, and his attention to psychology all contribute to the sense of modernity in Modern Love. Especially contemporary in their feel are the often scathing domestic vignettes that alternate with lyric passages, that sustain the narrative of the poem, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Victorian Poetry West Virginia University Press

How All Occasions Do Inform: "Household Matters" and Domestic Vignettes in George Meredith's Modern Love

Barr, Alan P.
Victorian Poetry , Volume 42 (3) – Nov 15, 2004
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Publisher
West Virginia University Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 West Virginia University.
ISSN
1530-7190
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Abstract

ALAN P. BARR been recognized as a challengingly, troublingly modern poem. Successive generations found it contemporary and pertinent. In 1862 the poem irked and even scandalized reviewers for its disturbing tastelessness and for what seemed its vulgar, amoral undressing of marital relations. The young Swinburne, an avatar of the new and shocking, was rare among the poem's first reviewers for his admiring letter in the Spectator of that year.1 Apprehension about the poem's indecency, however, quickly yielded to appreciations of its art and then examinations of its richness--in form, in style, in narration, and in imagery. Meredith mimes the courtly sonnet tradition to reveal a tale of marital disarray. The poem's images, which have been widely discussed, combine to depict domestic scenes from this marriage, scenes that are sharp, lucid, and forceful. The emotions--essentially those of the husband-- highlight the personal tensions and interpersonal "games" of the couple (what might now be termed "the family dynamics"). Meredith's form, his images, and his attention to psychology all contribute to the sense of modernity in Modern Love. Especially contemporary in their feel are the often scathing domestic vignettes that alternate with lyric passages, that sustain the narrative of the poem,

Journal

Victorian Poetry – West Virginia University Press

Published: Nov 15, 2004

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