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:
- Омар Хайям – День прошел, и о нем позабудь поскорей
- Francis II, King of Naples poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о планах
- On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again poem – John Keats poems
- Алексей Ржевский – Как я стал знать взор твой
- A Dream Or No by Thomas Hardy
- Villanelle: The Psychological Hour poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Sonnet 16 poem – John Milton poems
- On The Cliffs Newport
- Юлиан Анисимов – Круглогодие
- Miracle Ice Cream
- For What She Had Done by Shel Silverstein
- Prayer For Lightning poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Presences by William Butler Yeats
- Silent Steps by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Нина Воронель – Гаданье
- Нина Воронель – Дождливый рассвет
- Нина Воронель – Дан приказ
- Нина Воронель – Чтоб спастись от проклятого невезенья
- Нина Воронель – Бывает, что вещи меня ненавидят
- Нина Воронель – Бабий стих
- Нина Воронель – Август
- Нина Воронель – Аэродром
- Нина Веселова – Жена
- Нина Стожкова – Подарки деда Мороза
- Нина Пикулева – Яна-Несмеяна
- Нина Пикулева – Ой, да чья ж это девчушка
- Нина Пикулева – Читайте, дети
- Нина Найденова – Наши игрушки
- Нина Гаген-Торн – Возвращение
- Нина Гаген-Торн – Тихо пальцы опускаю
- Нина Гаген-Торн – На свете есть много мук
- Нина Гаген-Торн – Колыма
- Нина Гаген-Торн – День мой в труде тяжелом
- Нина Гаген-Торн – Барак ночью
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.