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:
- Владимир Маяковский – Вот за то, что я пою… (Главполитпросвет №153)
- William Cullen Bryant – William Cullen Bryant
- And the days are not full enough poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Даешь материальную базу
- Юлия Друнина – Я горожанка
- Sumter In Ruins by William Gilmore Simms
- Lonely Nights by Walter William Safar
- Robert Burns: The Banks O’ Doon: First Version
- Dockery And Son by Philip Larkin
- Bluebeard by Sylvia Plath
- Альфред де Мюссе – Майская ночь
- On The Death Of Mrs. Throckmorton’s Bullfinch by William Cowper
- Fergus And The Druid by William Butler Yeats
- Robert Burns: Come, Let Me Take Thee To My Breast:
- Казимир Лисовский – Река Енисей
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
- Константин Бальмонт – Море – вечное стремленье, горы – царственный покой
- Константин Бальмонт – Молитва последняя
- Константин Бальмонт – Молитва
- Константин Бальмонт – Если грустно тебе
- Константин Бальмонт – Эльзи
- Константин Бальмонт – Электрон
- Константин Бальмонт – Далеким близким
- Константин Бальмонт – Да, я люблю одну тебя
- Константин Бальмонт – Цветок (Я цветок, и счастье аромата)
- Константин Бальмонт – Цветок
- Константин Бальмонт – Чудовище с клеймом
- Константин Бальмонт – Что достойно, что бесчестно
- Константин Бальмонт – Четыре источника
- Константин Бальмонт – Чет и нечет
- Константин Бальмонт – Черный и белый
- Константин Бальмонт – Черные вороны
- Кондратий Рылеев – Песня (Кто сколько ни хлопочет)
- Кондратий Рылеев – Переводчику «Андромахи»
- Кондратий Рылеев – Палей
- Кондратий Рылеев – Оставь меня, Я здесь молю
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.