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:
- The Lover Asks Forgiveness Because Of His Many Moods by William Butler Yeats
- Иван Мятлев – Бывало
- Debt by Sara Teasdale
- Ок Мельникова – Всё будет
- The Rwose In The Dark by William Barnes
- Sonnet III. Written On The Day That Mr. Leigh Hunt Left Prison poem – John Keats poems
- A Pict Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Birthday Present poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Маяковский – Товарищ Иванов
- Шекспир – День без тебя казался ночью – Сонет 43
- A Grey Day by William Vaughn Moody
- Motel Seedy by Thomas Lux
- Pharaohs, Protests and Public by Sunil Sharma
- Sonnet: After Dark Vapors Have Oppress’d Our Plains poem – John Keats poems
- After the Last Glacier is Gone by Benjamin Alva Polley
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
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про стукача
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про правого инсайда
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про первые ряды
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про белого слона
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня парня у обелиска космонавтам
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о Земле
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о вещем Олеге
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о сумасшедшем доме
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о штангисте
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о погибшем лётчике
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о конькобежце на короткие дистанции, которого заставили бежать на длинную
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о двух красивых автомобилях
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня микрофона
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня лётчика
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня конченого человека
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня из радиоспектакля “Зелёный фургон”
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Геращенко
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Билла Сиггера
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня автомобилиста
- Владимир Высоцкий – Живу я в лучшем из миров
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.