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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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• My Friends by W. S. Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• Language by W. S. Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• It Is March by W. S. Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• William Stanley Merwin – William Stanley Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• Green Fields by W. S. Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• For The Anniversary Of My Death by W. S. Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• For A Coming Extinction by W. S. Merwin by William Stanley Merwin
• When I Met My Muse by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Waking at 3 a.m. by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Traveling Through The Dark by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Thinking For Berky by William Stafford by William Stafford
• The Light By The Barn by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Security by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Returned To Say by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Remembering Mountain Men by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Objector by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Notice What This Poem Is Not Doing by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Lit Instructor by William Stafford by William Stafford
• Just Thinking by William Stafford by William Stafford
• William Stafford – William Stafford by William Stafford

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

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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