A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
What pleasures have great princes? These: to know
Themselves reputed mad with pride or power;
To speak few words — few words and short bring low
This ancient house, that city with flame devour;
To make old men, their father’s enemies,
Drunk on the vintage of the former age;
To have great painters show their mistresses
Naked to the succeeding time; engage
The cunning of able, treacherous ministers
To serve, despite themselves, the cause they hate,
And leave a prosperous kingdom to their heirs
Nursed by the caterpillars of the state;
To keep their spies in good men’s hearts; to read
The malice of the wise, and act betimes;
To hear the Grand Remonstrances of greed
Led by the pure; cheat justice of her crimes;
To beget worthless sons and, being old,
By starlight climb the battlements, and while
The pacing sentry hugs himself for cold,
Keep vigil like a lover, muse and smile,
And think, to see from the grim castle steep
The midnight city below rejoice and shine:
“There my great demon grumbles in his sleep
And dreams of his destruction, and of mine.”

A few random poems:
- A Practical Young Woman poem – Irwin Russell “,
- Strada’s Nightingale by William Cowper
- Daybreak In A Garden by Siegfried Sassoon
- To a Childless Woman by Siegfried Sassoon
- By The Camp Fire
- Владимир Маяковский – Реклама Резинотрест
- Алексей Толстой – Слова для мазурки
- Robert Burns: On Chloris: Requesting me to give her a Spring of Blossomed Thorn.
- Dublinesque by Philip Larkin
- Poets to Come. by Walt Whitman
- Poppies on Ludlow Castle by Willa Cather
- The Captain by Stevens Cadet
- The Delibash poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Winter dusk at the railway halt by Sunil Sharma
- It’s Beautiful to See Through the Eyes of the Sky by Walter William Safar
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
- Medusa by Sylvia Plath
- Moonrise by Sylvia Plath
- Medallion by Sylvia Plath
- Mirror by Sylvia Plath
- Maudlin by Sylvia Plath
- Midsummer Mobile by Sylvia Plath
- Magnolia Shoals by Sylvia Plath
- Metaphors by Sylvia Plath
- Magi by Sylvia Plath
- Medusa by Sylvia Plath
- Maenad by Sylvia Plath
- Medallion by Sylvia Plath
- Lyonnesse by Sylvia Plath
- Maudlin by Sylvia Plath
- Lorelei by Sylvia Plath
- Magnolia Shoals by Sylvia Plath
- Little Fugue by Sylvia Plath
- Magi by Sylvia Plath
- Maenad by Sylvia Plath
- Lyonnesse by Sylvia Plath
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.