The Reef poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster

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?

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Andromeda poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Patience, Hard Thing! The Hard Thing But To Pray poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• On the Portrait of Two Beautiful Young People poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• No Worst, There Is None. Pitched Past Pitch Of Grief poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• My prayers must meet a brazen heaven poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• My Own Heart Let Me Have More Have Pity On; Let poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Morning Midday And Evening Sacrifice poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Moonrise poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Moonless darkness stands between poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• May Magnificat poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Love Preparing to Fly poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Let me be to Thee as the circling bird poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Inversnaid poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• In The Valley Of The Elwy poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• In Honour Of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• I Wake And Feel The Fell Of Dark, Not Day poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Hurrahing In Harvest poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Hope Holds to Christ poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Henry Purcell poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins
• Heaven–Haven: A Nun Takes The Veil poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins

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.

 

Parallel Translations of Poetry

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works