{"id":31094,"date":"2016-01-19T06:30:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T17:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=31094"},"modified":"2016-01-18T23:11:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T10:11:36","slug":"excerpt-the-woods-of-westermain-by-george-meredith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/01\/19\/excerpt-the-woods-of-westermain-by-george-meredith\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt: “The Woods Of Westermain” by George Meredith"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Woods of Westermain<\/h3>\n

I<\/p>\n

Enter these enchanted woods,
\nYou who dare.
\nNothing harms beneath the leaves
\nMore than waves a swimmer cleaves.
\nToss your heart up with the lark,
\nFoot at peace with mouse and worm,
\nFair you fare.
\nOnly at a dread of dark
\nQuaver, and they quit their form:
\nThousand eyeballs under hoods
\nHave you by the hair.
\nEnter these enchanted woods,
\nYou who dare.<\/p>\n

II<\/p>\n

Here the snake across your path
\nStretches in his golden bath:
\nMossy-footed squirrels leap
\nSoft as winnowing plumes of Sleep:
\nYaffles on a chuckle skim
\nLow to laugh from branches dim:
\nUp the pine, where sits the star,
\nRattles deep the moth-winged jar.
\nEach has business of his own;
\nBut should you distrust a tone,
\nThen beware …<\/p>\n

… Enter these enchanted woods,
\nYou who dare.
\n…<\/p>\n

by George Meredith, 1828 – 1909<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

As I mentioned last week<\/a>, I am starting my year in poetry by featuring poems that concern trees. I am wondering if it is coincidence that both my poems to date are Victorian … The Woods of Westermain<\/em> is a rather long poem, and quite “dense” in terms of word style and material as well, which is why I’ve only used an excerpt today — but I think it gives you the “feel” of the work.<\/p>\n

Also on trees, check out Sunday’s post on “treemail”: love letters to Melbourne’s trees<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Woods of Westermain I Enter these enchanted woods, You who dare. Nothing harms beneath the leaves More than waves a swimmer cleaves. Toss your heart up with the lark, Foot at peace with mouse and worm, Fair you fare. Only at a dread of dark Quaver, and they quit their form: Thousand eyeballs under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31095,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31094\/revisions\/31095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}