The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems
Aldous Huxley
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Though later known for his essays and novels, Aldous Huxley started his writing career as a poet. Published in 1918, The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems is his third compilation of poetry.
The volume begins with "The Defeat of Youth", a sequence of twenty-two sonnets that explores irreconcilability of the ideal and the disappointing reality. Jerome Meckier called it “the century’s most successful sonnet sequence, better than Auden’s or Edna St. Vincent Millay’s.” In the rest of the volume, Huxley continues to explore themes started in The Burning Wheel, his first volume of poetry, including vision, blindness, and other contrasts.
The volume concludes with two English translations by Huxley of two French poems: Stéphane Mallarmé’s 1876 poem “L’Après-midi d’un faune" and Arthur Rimbaud’s (1871) poem “Les Chercheuses de poux,” translated as “The Louse Hunters.” Summary by Mary Kay. (1 hr 23 min)
Chapters
The Defeat of Youth: Under the Trees | 5:10 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Defeat of Youth: In the Hay-Loft | 2:15 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Defeat of Youth: Mountains | 2:16 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Defeat of Youth: In the Little Room | 6:54 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Defeat of Youth: In the Park | 3:08 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Defeat of Youth: Self Torment | 2:11 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Defeat of Youth: The Quarry in the Wood | 1:20 | Read by bundy98 |
Song of Poplars | 2:07 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Reef | 3:42 | Read by Renkotsu |
Winter Dream | 1:53 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Flowers | 1:06 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Elms | 1:14 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Out of the Window | 1:50 | Read by bundy98 |
Inspiration | 0:53 | Read by bundy98 |
Summer Stillness | 0:48 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Anniversaries | 2:50 | Read by Renkotsu |
Italy | 2:15 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Alien | 0:49 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
A Little Memory | 0:55 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Waking | 2:13 | Read by Renkotsu |
By the Fire | 2:11 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Valedictory | 2:40 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Love Song | 1:38 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Private Property | 1:11 | Read by bundy98 |
Revelation | 1:01 | Read by bundy98 |
Minoan Porcelain | 0:56 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Decameron | 1:22 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
In Uncertainty to a Lady | 0:44 | Read by bundy98 |
Crapulous Impression | 1:59 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
The Life Theoretic | 1:05 | Read by bundy98 |
Complaint of a Poet Manqué | 1:26 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Social Amenities | 0:54 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Topiary | 1:09 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
On the Bus | 0:58 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Points and Lines | 0:54 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Panic | 0:52 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Return from Business | 0:38 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Stanzas | 1:57 | Read by Arthur Krolman |
Poem | 1:50 | Read by Larry Wilson |
Scenes of the Mind | 2:54 | Read by J. McDougall |
L'Après-Midi D'un Faune | 7:09 | Read by Larry Wilson |
The Louse-Hunters | 2:01 | Read by Arthur Krolman |