A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963)
I had remarked–how sharply one observes
When life is disappearing round the curves
Of yet another corner, out of sight!–
I had remarked when it was “good luck” and “good night”
And “a good journey to you,” on her face
Certain enigmas penned in the hieroglyphs
Of that half frown and queer fixed smile and trace
Of clouded thought in those brown eyes,
Always so happily clear of hows and ifs–
My poor bleared mind!–and haunting whys.
There I stood, holding her farewell hand,
(Pressing my life and soul and all
The world to one good-bye, till, small
And smaller pressed, why there I’d stand
Dead when they vanished with the sight of her).
And I saw that she had grown aware,
Queer puzzled face! of other things
Beyond the present and her own young speed,
Of yesterday and what new days might breed
Monstrously when the future brings
A charger with your late-lamented head:
Aware of other people’s lives and will,
Aware, perhaps, aware even of me …
The joyous hope of it! But still
I pitied her; for it was sad to see
A goddess shorn of her divinity.
In the midst of her speed she had made pause,
And doubts with all their threat of claws,
Outstripped till now by her unconsciousness,
Had seized on her; she was proved mortal now.
“Live, only live! For you were meant
Never to know a thought’s distress,
But a long glad astonishment
At the world’s beauty and your own.
The pity of you, goddess, grown
Perplexed and mortal.”
Yet … yet … can it be
That she is aware, perhaps, even of me?
And life recedes, recedes; the curve is bare,
My handkerchief flutters blankly in the air;
And the question rumbles in the void:
Was she aware, was she after all aware?
A few random poems:
- The River Of Bees by W. S. Merwin
- Lonely Nights by Walter William Safar
- Stans Puer ad Mensam by Sir Walter Raleigh
- May-Night by William Ellery Leonard
- Sonnet 03
- The Fish by Marianne Moore
- On Invalids (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Leaving Early by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Маяковский – За четыре года советской власти… (Главполитпросвет №248)
- Sonnet LIX by William Shakespeare
- To Mirth by Tobias Smollett
- Mohini Chatterjee by William Butler Yeats
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Элегия (Мысль в разлуке с вещим сном)
- Владимир Маяковский – Что делать, чтоб сытому быть?.. (РОСТА №219)
- Broccoli by Rina Ferrarelli
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
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 121. Sad Hesper o’er the buried sun poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 11. Calm is the morn without a sound poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 118. Contemplate all this work of Tim poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 105. To-night ungather’d let us leave poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam 82: I Wage Not Any Feud With Death poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam 3: O Sorrow, Cruel Fellowship poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam 16: I envy not in any moods poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- In Memoriam 131: O Living Will That Shalt Endure poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur (excerpt) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Idylls of the King: The Marriage of Geraint poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Idylls of the King: The Last Tournament (excerpt) poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Idylls Of The King: Song From The Marriage Of Geraint poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- How Thought You That This Thing Could Captivate? poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Hendecasyllabics poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Guinevere poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Gareth And Lynette poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Fatima | Best Love Poems
- Enoch Arden poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Duet poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
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.