A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)
My green aquarium of phantom fish,
Goggling in on me through the misty panes;
My rotting leaves and fields spongy with rains;
My few clear quiet autumn days–I wish
I could leave all, clearness and mistiness;
Sodden or goldenly crystal, all too still.
Yes, and I too rot with the leaves that fill
The hollows in the woods; I am grown less
Than human, listless, aimless as the green
Idiot fishes of my aquarium,
Who loiter down their dim tunnels and come
And look at me and drift away, nought seen
Or understood, but only glazedly
Reflected. Upwards, upwards through the shadows,
Through the lush sponginess of deep-sea meadows
Where hare-lipped monsters batten, let me ply
Winged fins, bursting this matrix dark to find
Jewels and movement, mintage of sunlight
Scattered largely by the profuse wind,
And gulfs of blue brightness, too deep for sight.
Free, newly born, on roads of music and air
Speeding and singing, I shall seek the place
Where all the shining threads of water race,
Drawn in green ropes and foamy meshes. There,
On the red fretted ramparts of a tower
Of coral rooted in the depths, shall break
An endless sequence of joy and speed and power:
Green shall shatter to foam; flake with white flake
Shall create an instant’s shining constellation
Upon the blue; and all the air shall be
Full of a million wings that swift and free
Laugh in the sun, all power and strong elation.
Yes, I shall seek that reef, which is beyond
All isles however magically sleeping
In tideless seas, uncharted and unconned
Save by blind eyes; beyond the laughter and weeping
That brood like a cloud over the lands of men.
Movement, passion of colour and pure wings,
Curving to cut like knives–these are the things
I search for:–passion beyond the ken
Of our foiled violences, and, more swift
Than any blow which man aims against time,
The invulnerable, motion that shall rift
All dimness with the lightning of a rhyme,
Or note, or colour. And the body shall be
Quick as the mind; and will shall find release
From bondage to brute things; and joyously
Soul, will and body, in the strength of triune peace,
Shall live the perfect grace of power unwasted.
And love consummate, marvellously blending
Passion and reverence in a single spring
Of quickening force, till now never yet tasted,
But ever ceaselessly thirsted for, shall crown
The new life with its ageless starry fire.
I go to seek that reef, far down, far down
Below the edge of everyday’s desire,
Beyond the magical islands, where of old
I was content, dreaming, to give the lie
To misery. They were all strong and bold
That thither came; and shall I dare to try?
A few random poems:
- Валерий Брюсов – Песня девушки в тайге
- Song by William Somervile
- A Song : The Sparkling Eye by William Cowper
- Юлий Даниэль – Дом
- Child’s Park Stones by Sylvia Plath
- Better And Best by John Oxenham
- Patroling Barnegat. by Walt Whitman
- Какая мама молодец
- Валерий Брюсов – Дождь перед ночью
- Владимир Высоцкий – Мы бдительны, мы тайн не разболтаем
- To Some Ladies poem – John Keats poems
- Алексей Плещеев – Ёлка в школе
- O, Were I Loved As I Desire To Be! poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Boston Evening Transcript by T. S. Eliot
- English Poetry. Thomas Moore. From “The Odes of Anacreon”. Ode 56. Томас Мур.
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
- Readen Ov A Head-Stwone by William Barnes
- “The Girt Woak Tree That’s In the Dell” by William Barnes
- Praise O’ Do’set by William Barnes
- Polly Be-en Upzides Wi’ Tom by William Barnes
- Poll’s Jack-Daw by William Barnes
- A Pleäce In Zight by William Barnes
- Pentridge By The River by William Barnes
- Out At Plough by William Barnes
- Out A-Nuttèn by William Barnes
- Our Father’s Works by William Barnes
- Our Be’thplace by William Barnes
- Our Abode In Arby Wood by William Barnes
- Not Goo Hwome To-Night by William Barnes
- Night A-Zetten In by William Barnes
- Nanny’s New Abode by William Barnes
- Nanny’s Cow by William Barnes
- Naighbour Pla Meätes by William Barnes
- My Love’s Guardian Angel by William Barnes
- My Love Is Good by William Barnes
- Mornèn by William Barnes
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
Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894 – 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly fifty books—both novels and non-fiction works—as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.