The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems
Aldous Huxley
Lu par 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)
Chapitres
| The Defeat of Youth: Under the Trees | 5:10 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Defeat of Youth: In the Hay-Loft | 2:15 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Defeat of Youth: Mountains | 2:16 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Defeat of Youth: In the Little Room | 6:54 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Defeat of Youth: In the Park | 3:08 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Defeat of Youth: Self Torment | 2:11 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Defeat of Youth: The Quarry in the Wood | 1:20 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Song of Poplars | 2:07 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Reef | 3:42 | Lu par Renkotsu |
| Winter Dream | 1:53 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Flowers | 1:06 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Elms | 1:14 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Out of the Window | 1:50 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Inspiration | 0:53 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Summer Stillness | 0:48 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Anniversaries | 2:50 | Lu par Renkotsu |
| Italy | 2:15 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Alien | 0:49 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| A Little Memory | 0:55 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Waking | 2:13 | Lu par Renkotsu |
| By the Fire | 2:11 | Lu par Larry Wilson |
| Valedictory | 2:40 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Love Song | 1:38 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Private Property | 1:11 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Revelation | 1:01 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Minoan Porcelain | 0:56 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Decameron | 1:22 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| In Uncertainty to a Lady | 0:44 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Crapulous Impression | 1:59 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| The Life Theoretic | 1:05 | Lu par bundy98 |
| Complaint of a Poet Manqué | 1:26 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Social Amenities | 0:54 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Topiary | 1:09 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| On the Bus | 0:58 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Points and Lines | 0:54 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Panic | 0:52 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Return from Business | 0:38 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Stanzas | 1:57 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |
| Poem | 1:50 | Lu par Larry Wilson |
| Scenes of the Mind | 2:54 | Lu par J. McDougall |
| L'Après-Midi D'un Faune | 7:09 | Lu par Larry Wilson |
| The Louse-Hunters | 2:01 | Lu par Arthur Krolman |