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:
- life on the escalator by Raj Arumugam
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- Rich or Poor by William Henry Davies
- The End by Rabindranath Tagore
- I Swear by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- The Forsaken poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- A Prayer On Going Into My House by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: The Winter It Is Past:
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Е. А. Карлгоф
- Федор Сологуб – Во мне мечты мои цветут
- On Colley Cibber poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
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- salamis_quot.html
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
- Every Sect has a Faith – Har Qaum Raast Raahay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Every Sect has a Faith – Har Qaum Raast Raahay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 7 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 6 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 5 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 4 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 3 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 2 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 11 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 10 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Couplet 1 poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- O Wondrous Ecstatic Eyes – Chashmay Mastay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Chaap Tilak poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Celebrate Spring Today poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Bahut Kathin Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Babul poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- What a Glow Everywhere I see – Aaj Rung Hai poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Celebrate Spring Today poem with a translation – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Words You Said poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
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.