A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)
In the middle of countries, far from hills and sea,
Are the little places one passes by in trains
And never stops at; where the skies extend
Uninterrupted, and the level plains
Stretch green and yellow and green without an end.
And behind the glass of their Grand Express
Folk yawn away a province through,
With nothing to think of, nothing to do,
Nothing even to look at–never a “view”
In this damned wilderness.
But I look out of the window and find
Much to satisfy the mind.
Mark how the furrows, formed and wheeled
In a motion orderly and staid,
Sweep, as we pass, across the field
Like a drilled army on parade.
And here’s a market-garden, barred
With stripe on stripe of varied greens …
Bright potatoes, flower starred,
And the opacous colour of beans.
Each line deliberately swings
Towards me, till I see a straight
Green avenue to the heart of things,
The glimpse of a sudden opened gate
Piercing the adverse walls of fate …
A moment only, and then, fast, fast,
The gate swings to, the avenue closes;
Fate laughs, and once more interposes
Its barriers.
The train has passed.
A few random poems:
- the_poet_angels_who_came_to_dinner.html
- Алишер Навои – Соловей, лишенный розы, умолкает, не поет
- Cino poem – Ezra Pound poems
- I am only the house of your beloved by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Flowers By The Sea by William Carlos Williams
- “Wonkavite…” by Roald Dahl
- Spring – The First Pastoral ; or Damon poem – Alexander Pope
- Михаил Кузмин – Я знаю вас не понаслышке
- Николай Некрасов – Внимая ужасам войны
- On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Нина Воронель – Гаданье
- Владимир Маяковский – Поляки-крестьяне, чтоб вольными быть…
- Adolescence by P. K. Page
- My impure god and I by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Жан де Лафонтен – Осел и Собака
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
- Николай Заболоцкий – Поэт
- Николай Заболоцкий – Подводный город
- Николай Заболоцкий – Пир в доме Бомбеева
- Николай Заболоцкий – Пекарня
- Николай Заболоцкий – Оттепель
- Николай Заболоцкий – Осенний клен
- Николай Заболоцкий – Осеннее утро
- Николай Заболоцкий – Офорт
- Николай Заболоцкий – Одиссей и Сирены
- Николай Заболоцкий – Обводной канал
- Николай Заболоцкий – Обед
- Николай Заболоцкий – Новый быт
- Николай Заболоцкий – Ночное гулянье
- Николай Заболоцкий – Ночь в лесу
- Николай Заболоцкий – Неудачник
- Николай Заболоцкий – Небесная Севилья
- Николай Заболоцкий – Народный дом
- Николай Заболоцкий – Начало зимы
- Николай Заболоцкий – На закате
- Николай Заболоцкий – На рынке
More external links (open in a new tab):
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.
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.