Affective Coherence, a Principle of Abated Action, and Meredith's "Modern Love"

George Meredith’s Poetry and the Critical Imagination

“…Meredith’s verse – with its formal innovation and frequent narrative underpinnings – would seem to be well suited to these trends. In fact, narrative concerns have long been a consideration in analyses of Meredith’s poetry; for example, Dorothy Mermin’s ‘Poetry as Fiction’ (1976) and Phillip Wilson’s ‘Affective Coherence’ (1974) do take on plot. Norman Kelvin’s 1979 review of Bartlett’s edition directly anticipates the current interest in hybrid approaches to poetry by endorsing the exploration of narrative in Meredith’s verse:…”