SOURCE: Golden, Arline. “‘The Game of Sentiment’: Tradition and Innovation in Meredith's Modern Love.” ELH 40, no. 3 (summer 1973): 264-84.

In the following essay, Golden considers Meredith's poem within the generic tradition of the sonnet sequence. Comparing the sonnets of Modern Love to Petrarchan and Shakespearean forms, Golden suggests that Meredith's adaptation of poetic tradition parallels his depiction of a marriage that outwardly adheres to traditional forms but suffers from modern sentimentality.

                    Lady, I am content To play with you the game of Sentiment 

Modern Love, “XXVIII”

I

In one of George Meredith's few references to Modern Love, he calls it “a dissection of the sentimental passion of these days.”¹ This statement proves very important in understanding Meredith's theme. By “sentimental” he meant artificial or hypocritical, the distortion or evasion of reality that colored Victorian attitudes toward love and sex.² But the phrase is also significant in that it focuses...