A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)
Once more the windless days are here,
Quiet of autumn, when the year
Halts and looks backward and draws breath
Before it plunges into death.
Silver of mist and gossamers,
Through-shine of noonday’s glassy gold,
Pale blue of skies, where nothing stirs
Save one blanched leaf, weary and old,
That over and over slowly falls
From the mute elm-trees, hanging on air
Like tattered flags along the walls
Of chapels deep in sunlit prayer.
Once more … Within its flawless glass
To-day reflects that other day,
When, under the bracken, on the grass,
We who were lovers happily lay
And hardly spoke, or framed a thought
That was not one with the calm hills
And crystal sky. Ourselves were nought,
Our gusty passions, our burning wills
Dissolved in boundlessness, and we
Were almost bodiless, almost free.
The wind has shattered silver and gold.
Night after night of sparkling cold,
Orion lifts his tangled feet
From where the tossing branches beat
In a fine surf against the sky.
So the trance ended, and we grew
Restless, we knew not how or why;
And there were sudden gusts that blew
Our dreaming banners into storm;
We wore the uncertain crumbling form
Of a brown swirl of windy leaves,
A phantom shape that stirs and heaves
Shuddering from earth, to fall again
With a dry whisper of withered rain.
Last, from the dead and shrunken days
We conjured spring, lighting the blaze
Of burnished tulips in the dark;
And from black frost we struck a spark
Of blue delight and fragrance new,
A little world of flowers and dew.
Winter for us was over and done:
The drought of fluttering leaves had grown
Emerald shining in the sun,
As light as glass, as firm as stone.
Real once more: for we had passed
Through passion into thought again;
Shaped our desires and made that fast
Which was before a cloudy pain;
Moulded the dimness, fixed, defined
In a fair statue, strong and free,
Twin bodies flaming into mind,
Poised on the brink of ecstasy.
A few random poems:
- The Wanderings of Oisin: Book I by William Butler Yeats
- Aplogize
- Collateral Damage by Martina Reisz Newberry
- The Affliction Of Margaret by William Wordsworth
- “`Father, farewell! Be not distressed” poem – Alfred Austin
- Ольга Берггольц – Стихи о себе
- Владимир Набоков – Простая песня, грусть простая
- Crusaders by William Wordsworth
- Morris Island by William Gilmore Simms
- Николай Карамзин – Прости
- In David’s “Child’s Garden Of Verses” by Sara Teasdale
- Olney Hymn 27: Welcome To The Table by William Cowper
- The Modern Lyricist As Poet
- The Trial Of A Man by Sylvia Plath
- Валерий Брюсов – Я жизнью пьян. Напиток жгучий
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Степан Щипачев – Потомкам
- Степан Щипачев – По дороге в совхоз
- Степан Щипачев – Опять тревожно, больно сердцу стало
- Степан Щипачев – Обращение к времени
- Степан Щипачев – Не громок, не бросок мой стих
- Степан Щипачев – Любовью дорожить умейте
- Степан Щипачев – Лил дождь осенний
- Степан Щипачев – Ладонь
- Степан Щипачев – Голос
- Степан Щипачев – День
- Степан Щипачев – Березка
- Степан Щипачев – Атака
- Стефан Малларме – Звенящий зимний день
- Стефан Малларме – Записка Уистлеру
- Стефан Малларме – Вздох
- Стефан Малларме – Весеннее обновление
- Стефан Малларме – В идоложертвенном ликующем костре
- Стефан Малларме – В альбом
- Стефан Малларме – Устав от горького бездействия и лени
- Стефан Малларме – Появление
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894 – 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly fifty books—both novels and non-fiction works—as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.