Italy

Aldous Leonard Huxley 1894 (Aldous Leonard Huxley Godalming, Surrey) – 1963 (Los Angeles County, California)



There is a country in my mind,
    Lovelier than a poet blind
    Could dream of, who had never known
    This world of drought and dust and stone
    In all its ugliness: a place
    Full of an all but human grace;
    Whose dells retain the printed form
    Of heavenly sleep, and seem yet warm
    From some pure body newly risen;
    Where matter is no more a prison,
    But freedom for the soul to know
    Its native beauty. For things glow
    There with an inward truth and are
    All fire and colour like a star.
    And in that land are domes and towers
    That hang as light and bright as flowers
    Upon the sky, and seem a birth
    Rather of air than solid earth.

    Sometimes I dream that walking there
    In the green shade, all unaware
    At a new turn of the golden glade,
    I shall see her, and as though afraid
    Shall halt a moment and almost fall
    For passing faintness, like a man
    Who feels the sudden spirit of Pan
    Brimming his narrow soul with all
    The illimitable world. And she,
    Turning her head, will let me see
    The first sharp dawn of her surprise
    Turning to welcome in her eyes.
    And I shall come and take my lover
    And looking on her re-discover
    All her beauty:--her dark hair
    And the little ears beneath it, where
    Roses of lucid shadow sleep;
    Her brooding mouth, and in the deep
    Wells of her eyes reflected stars ...

    Oh, the imperishable things
    That hands and lips as well as words
    Shall speak! Oh movement of white wings,
    Oh wheeling galaxies of birds ...!
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Submitted by halel on July 23, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:20 min read
19

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII JJKKLMMLNNOOPPJJQQX RSRS
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,528
Words 269
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 18, 19, 4

Aldous Leonard Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 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. Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with an undergraduate degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962. Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism and universalism, addressing these subjects with works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945)—which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism—and The Doors of Perception (1954)—which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his vision of dystopia and utopia, respectively.  more…

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    "Italy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/54446/italy>.

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