Anniversaries

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.

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Poems in English 

• Olney Hymn 26: On Opening A Place For Social Prayer by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 24: Prayer For Children by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 23: Pleading For And With Youth by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Olney Hymn 22: Prayer For A Blessing In The Young by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Lines Addressed To Dr. Darwin, Author Of The ‘Botanic Garden.’ by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Joy In Martyrdom by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Invitation To The Redbreast by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For The Tomb Of Mr. Hamilton by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1791 by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Stone Erected At The Sowing Of A Grove Of Oaks At Chillington, Anno 1790 by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Moss-House In The Shrubbery At Weston by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Inscription For A Hermitage In The Author’s Garden by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In Seditionem Horrendam, Corruptelis Gallicus Ut Fertue, Londini Nuper Exortam by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In Memory Of The Late John Thornton, Esq. by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In A Letter To C. P. Esq. In Imitation Of Shakspeare by William Cowper by William Cowper
• In A Letter To C. P. Esq. Ill With The Rheumatism by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Hymn For The Use Of The Sunday School At Olney by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Hope, Like The Short-lived Ray That Gleams Awhile by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Gratitude And Love To God by William Cowper by William Cowper
• Gratitude, Addressed To Lady Hesketh by William Cowper by William Cowper

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