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:
- Essential Beauty by Philip Larkin
- A Soldier’s Reprieve by William Topaz McGonagall
- To One who Loved not Poetry by Sappho
- Омар Хайям – Мы больше в этот мир вовек не попадем
- Анатолий Жигулин – Марта, Марта! Весеннее имя
- The Milk-Maid O’ The Farm by William Barnes
- The Narrative by Talha Jafri
- Ballade Of The Dead Cities poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Нынче бар в России нет… (Главполитпросвет №37)
- Владимир Луговской – Мальчики играют на горе
- Song Of The Enfifa River
- An Imperial Rescript by Rudyard Kipling
- Colonus’ Praise by William Butler Yeats
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Мелочи жизни
- Наталья Шевченко – Он не в себе
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
- Shall I like An Eternal World by Nithin Purple
- Sea World by Nin Andrews
- For Roman Polanski by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Red Roses by Nithin Purple
- Rainy Day by Nikhil Jain
- “Flight to the Moon” by Nina Gabriel
- First Look at Mom by Nikhil Jain
- The Poet’s Grave by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Nijole Miliauskaite – Nijole Miliauskaite
- Nijole Miliauskaite – Nijole Miliauskaite
- When Lovely Woman Stoops To Folly by Oliver Goldsmith
- The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith
- Picture by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Palms and Hearts by Olawuyi Mutiu
- Orchard by Nijole Miliauskaite
- Only in my dreams by Nina Gabriel
- On Fair Compassion by Nithin Purple
- On An Insight On Grecian Spring by Nithin Purple
- On An Arctic Winter by Nithin Purple
- On A World Of Imaginary & Freedom Dwell by Nithin Purple
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.