A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)
(To J.S.)
Still life, still life … the high-lights shine
Hard and sharp on the bottles: the wine
Stands firmly solid in the glasses,
Smooth yellow ice, through which there passes
The lamp’s bright pencil of down-struck light.
The fruits metallically gleam,
Globey in their heaped-up bowl,
And there are faces against the night
Of the outer room–faces that seem
Part of this still, still life … they’ve lost their soul.
And amongst these frozen faces you smiled,
Surprised, surprisingly, like a child:
And out of the frozen welter of sound
Your voice came quietly, quietly.
“What about God?” you said. “I have found
Much to be said for Totality.
All, I take it, is God: God’s all–
This bottle, for instance …” I recall,
Dimly, that you took God by the neck–
God-in-the-bottle–and pushed Him across:
But I, without a moment’s loss
Moved God-in-the-salt in front and shouted: “Check!”
A few random poems:
- Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali
- The Sergeant’s Weddin’ by Rudyard Kipling
- Алексей Жемчужников – Так прочен в сердце и в мозгу
- In Imitation of E. of Rochester : On Silence poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- The Tombstone-Maker by Siegfried Sassoon
- Tumult by Nicole M Nugent
- On The Menu by Graham Rowlands
- Олег Бундур – Нарасхват
- Sergei Esenin (Serguei Yesenin, Sergueï Essénine) – Sounds of Sorrow
- On Being Asked For A War Poem by William Butler Yeats
- Олег Григорьев – Зашли мы к Сизову с приятелем
- Юлия Друнина – Есть время любить
- I Don’t Know If History Repeats Itself by Yehuda Amichai
- ASHA APARTMENTS, 416, S.V. ROAD by Santosh Kumar Panda
- Sonnet 121: Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed by William Shakespeare
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
- Sonnet 12
- Sonnet 11
- Sonnet 10
- Sonnet 08
- Sonnet 07
- Sonnet 06
- Sonnet 05
- Sonnet 04
- Sonnet 03
- Sonnet 02
- Sonnet 01
- Resurgam
- Rendezvous
- Paris
- On The Cliffs Newport
- On A Theme In The Greek Anthology
- Maktoob
- Lyonesse
- Liebestod
- La Nue
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
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Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works

Alcaeus of Mytilene ( c. 625/620 – c. 580 Before Christ) ] was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria.