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:
- I Had To Leave by Subhash Misra
- Аля Кудряшева – Я работаю солнечной батареей
- Man’s Knowledge – Ingorance in the Mysteries of God by William Drummond
- The Kind Word
- Playthings by Rabindranath Tagore
- English Poetry. Robert William Service. Dark Glasses. Роберт Уильям Сервис.
- xai_kou0.html
- If I Got You by Miraj Patel
- Федор Сологуб – Круг начертан, и Сивилла
- Before you go a little way prospecting by T. Wignesan
- Sonnet 42: That thou hast her, it is not all my grief by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Сослуживцу
- Epitaph on a Tyrant by W. H. Auden
- The Jungle Husband by Stevie Smith
- France, the 18th year of These States. by Walt Whitman
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
- Михаил Лермонтов – Чаша жизни
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бухариной
- Михаил Лермонтов – Булевар
- Михаил Лермонтов – Боюсь не смерти я
- Лермонтов – Бородино: Стихотворение “Скажи-ка, дядя, ведь не даром”, читать текст стиха полностью онлайн на Poetry Monster
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бой с барсом (Отрывок Мцыри)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Блистая, пробегают облака
- Михаил Лермонтов – Благодарность
- Михаил Лермонтов – Без вас хочу сказать вам много
- Михаил Лермонтов – Беглец
- Михаил Лермонтов – Бартеневой
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (Куда так проворно, жидовка младая)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (из Байрона)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Баллада (В избушке позднею порою)
- Михаил Лермонтов – Ах! Ныне я не тот совсем
- Михаил Лермонтов – Арфа
- Михаил Лермонтов – Ангел
- Михаил Лермонтов – А. А. Олениной (Ах! Анна Алексевна)
- Михаил Кузмин – Звезда Афродиты
- Михаил Кузмин – Зимнее солнце
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.