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 

• Ten Years After by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• Telescopes In The Square by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• South Africa by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Shattered Dreams. Broken Promises. by Russell James by Poetry In English
• Savour Your Life by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Rosslyn To The Prime Minister by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• Writing to Onegin by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Icicles round a Tree in Dumfriesshire by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Conqueror by Russell Hughes Ragsdale by Poetry In English
• Conversation 4: On Place by Rosmarie Waldrop by Poetry In English
• To A Young Lady. On Her Recovery From A Fever by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Written In Early Youth. The Time,–An Autumnal Evening by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Fire, Famine, And Slaughter : A War Eclogue by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Fancy In Nubibus, Or The Poet In The Clouds by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Epitaph On An Infant. by Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• What would I do without this world by Samuel Beckett by Samuel Barclay Beckett
• Cascando by Samuel Beckett by Samuel Barclay Beckett
• To a Commencement of Scoundrels by Samuel Hazo by Poetry In English
• The Nearness That Is All by Samuel Hazo by Poetry In English
• The Middle of the World by Samuel Hazo by Poetry In English

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