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 

• Spain 1873–’74. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Souvenirs of Democracy. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song of the Universal. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song of the Redwood-Tree. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song of the Open Road. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song of the Exposition. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song of the Broad-Axe. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song for All Seas, All Ships. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Song at Sunset. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Sometimes with One I Love. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Solid, Ironical, Rolling Orb. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Sobbing of The Bells, The. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• So Long. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• So Far and So Far, and on Toward the End. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• The Sleepers by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Singer in the Prison, The. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Sing of the Banner at Day-Break. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Shut Not Your Doors, &c. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Ship Starting, The. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman
• Scented Herbage of My Breast. by Walt Whitman by Walt Whitman

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