A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the following runic inscription (about A.D. 1050) cut on it: I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s detestable wife; better she should be a widow.
Words scored upon a bone,
Scratched in despair or rage —
Nine hundred years have gone;
Now, in another age,
They burn with passion on
A scholar’s tranquil page.
The scholar takes his pen
And turns the bone about,
And writes those words again.
Once more they seethe and shout
And through a human brain
Undying hate rings out.
“I loved her when a maid;
I loathe and love the wife
That warms another’s bed:
Let him beware his life!”
The scholar’s hand is stayed;
His pen becomes a knife
To grave in living bone
The fierce archaic cry.
He sits and reads his own
Dull sum of misery.
A thousand years have flown
Before that ink is dry.
And, in a foreign tongue,
A man, who is not he,
Reads and his heart is wrung
This ancient grief to see,
And thinks: When I am dung,
What bone shall speak for me?
A few random poems:
- L’Allegro poem – John Milton poems
- An Epitaph On Sr John Walter, Lord Cheife Baron by William Strode
- Pañuelos de La Alhambra by Mara Romero Torres
- Images by Mary Etta Metcalf
- Владимир Маяковский – Россия — единое советское хозяйство (РОСТА № 280)
- Edmonton, thy cemetery by Stevie Smith
- Where fair Sabrina’s wand’ring currents flow by William Somervile
- Владимир Маяковский – Подписи к рисункам в журнале “ВОБ”
- Владимир Высоцкий – Наброски песен к несостоявшемуся спектаклю по сказкам Шергина
- I am a sculptor, a molder of form by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Омар Хайям – Коль станешь твердым
- Robert Burns: Lines Sent To Sir John Whiteford, Bart: With The Lament On The Death Of the Earl Of Glencairn
- Patience by Rabindranath Tagore
- The Atheist poem – Aleister Crowley poems | Poetry Monster
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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
- Robert Burns: A Stanza Added In A Mason Lodge:
- Robert Burns: No Churchman Am I:
- Robert Burns: I’ll Go And Be A Sodger:
- Robert Burns: Raging Fortune:
- Robert Burns: Fickle Fortune: Fragment
- Robert Burns: Stanzas On The Same Occasion [Prospect of Death]:
- Robert Burns Country: O Tibbie, I Hae Seen The Day:
- Robert Burns: In The Prospect Of Death:
- Robert Burns: First Six Verses Of The Ninetieth Psalm Versified, The :
- Robert Burns: Paraphrase Of The First Psalm:
- Robert Burns: Under The Pressure Of Violent Anguish:
- Robert Burns: Winter: A Dirge:
- Robert Burns: Mary Morison:
- Robert Burns: Bonie Peggy Alison:
- Robert Burns: Lass Of Cessnock Banks, The:
- Robert Burns: Here’s To Thy Health:
- Robert Burns Country: Ronalds Of The Bennals, The:
- Robert Burns: Handsome Nell:
- Erotic comics by Hanz Kovacq, porn comic books by known illustrators – continued
- Hitler, a poem about Hitler
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
Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000) was an Australian poet and essayist known for his satirical slant. He was also a critic, teacher and academic.