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 

• Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Дафнис подслушивает сов by Алексей Толстой
• Толстой Алексей Николаевич стихи: Читать стихотворения Алексея Толстого – Список произведений, стихов поэта на Poetry Monster by Алексей Толстой
• The Hecatomb to his Mistress by John Cleveland by John Cleveland
• To the State of Love. Or the Senses’ Festival. By John Cleveland by John Cleveland
• I love you by Александр Башлачёв
• A Human Being Needs Strong Tea by Поэзия На Русском
• Dog racing by Поэзия На Русском
• Dissolve in kisses, I would like to dissolve in your kisses by Поэзия На Русском
• Tale of the Pope and of His Workman Balda by Александр Пушкин
• Who of you ever by Поэзия На Русском
• Аnything can happen by Fledermaus
• Outside the Window, Snow by Поэзия На Русском
• You must once by Поэзия На Русском
• February 23 by Поэзия На Русском
• May 19th – the Young Pioneers Day by Поэзия На Русском
• Море волнуется, манит к себе by Поэзия На Русском
• Море огней украшает причалы, вокзалы by Поэзия На Русском
• Кипение by Поэзия На Русском
• Каждому сроку – свой путь by Поэзия На Русском
• Каждый день и каждый миг судьбу благодарю by Поэзия На Русском

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