George Meredith writes contemplative poetry about the human condition. As common with poets, he dwells upon nature and how the natural processes are reflected in human nature. Professing a belief in God, Meredith writes to great length about how God relates to mankind. He arrives at a sort of impass by treating God as impersonal, unknowable but somehow still the fulfillment of man's desires.
This discussion of the nature of God comes to a head in the poem "Juggling Jerry." In this text an aging juggler tells his wife that they must leave the circus behind because he's physically incapable of continuing. He reflects upon his career and concludes that he's achieved a great deal of excellence, but there are always haters. He worries about death. To Jerry, God is the ultimate juggler, the perfect version of what he himself has attempted to do. He says this not because he literally believes God is up in heaven juggling, but because he has ordered his life around the example of perfection. As good as he can imagine God, that has been his standard of living. So when Jerry pictures God, he pictures the best juggler ever.
Similarly, the nature of mankind comes into question in Meredith's writing. He explores the relationships between man and nature and man in relation with man. Both types of relationship, he concludes, must be held as metaphors, which is to say that no explanation can describe the nature of these relations because their existence is more conceptual. This is why the narrator of "Love in the Valley" does not hold his lover to an arbitrary standard of purity but rather desires for her to love freely and generously. He explains the strength of their relationship by describing how his lover is most attractive when she is kind and open, but he feels attracted to her whether or not she is directing her affection at him personally. If their relationship were held in more concrete terms, as a type of social contract, then he would not extend this sort of open-mindedness to his lover.
