By The Fire

A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)

We who are lovers sit by the fire,

Cradled warm ‘twixt thought and will,

Sit and drowse like sleeping dogs

In the equipoise of all desire,

Sit and listen to the still

Small hiss and whisper of green logs

That burn away, that burn away

With the sound of a far-off falling stream

Of threaded water blown to steam,

Grey ghost in the mountain world of grey.

Vapours blue as distance rise

Between the hissing logs that show

A glimpse of rosy heat below;

And candles watch with tireless eyes

While we sit drowsing here. I know,

Dimly, that there exists a world,

That there is time perhaps, and space

Other and wider than this place,

Where at the fireside drowsily curled

We hear the whisper and watch the flame

Burn blinkless and inscrutable.

And then I know those other names

That through my brain from cell to cell

Echo–reverberated shout

Of waiters mournful along corridors:

But nobody carries the orders out,

And the names (dear friends, your name and yours)

Evoke no sign. But here I sit

On the wide hearth, and there are you:

That is enough and only true.

The world and the friends that lived in it

Are shadows: you alone remain

Real in this drowsing room,

Full of the whispers of distant rain

And candles staring into the gloom.

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Poems in English 

• Answers by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• And The Black Scythe With Its Beak of Ibis by Martine Morillon-Carreau by Poetry In English
• After Forever by Mark Miller by Poetry In English
• A World So Different by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• A Poet I knew by Martin Zakovski by Poetry In English
• A Piece Of The Storm by Mark Strand by Poetry In English
• A Photograph on the Desk by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• A Misty Morning by Mary Etta Mietcalf by Poetry In English
• A Cozy Little Room by Mary Etta Metcalf by Poetry In English
• À ce point du voyage by Martine Morillon-Carreau by Poetry In English
• A Dream of Rodney King by Mary TallMountain by Poetry In English
• You Ask Why Sometimes I Say Stop by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Yell of Pain by Maria Ivana Trevisani Bach by Poetry In English
• Year’s End by Marilyn Hacker by Poetry In English
• Winter Promises by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• What Are Big Girls Made Of? by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Visiting a Dead Man on a Summer Day by Marge Piercy by Poetry In English
• Upon Julia’s Breast by Marie Starr by Poetry In English
• Unloved, unmoved by Maria Jastine Golo by Poetry In English
• Twas’ the Night Before Christmas and Santa got Drunk by Margaret Marie Hubbard by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

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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.

 

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