SOURCE: Simpson, Arthur L. “Meredith's Alien Vision: ‘In the Woods.’” Victorian Poetry 20, no. 2 (summer 1982): 113-23.

In the following essay, Simpson contends that “In the Woods” is best read as an example of Meredith's earlier, more pessimistic works, rather than as an awkward version of his later philosophy. Simpson suggests that the poem represents a significant transitional phase of Meredith's naturalism.

One factor contributing to the difficulty of arriving at an adequate appraisal of Meredith's poetry is that modern critics have for the most part overlooked an important stage in the development of his poetic vision. They have largely ignored (except for Modern Love) or misinterpreted an important body of poems published between 1860 and 1880—poems which enunciate a view of reality alien in many ways to the optimistic or melioristic philosophic naturalism central to his mature poetic world view.

I assert that “In the Woods,” Meredith's second-best longer poem...