A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
Gliding through the still air, he made no sound;
Wing-shod and deft, dropped almost at her feet,
And searched the ghostly regiments and found
The living eyes, the tremor of breath, the beat
Of blood in all that bodiless underground.
She left her majesty; she loosed the zone
Of darkness and put by the rod of dread.
Standing, she turned her back upon the throne
Where, well she knew, the Ruler of the Dead,
Lord of her body and being, sat like stone;
Stared with his ravenous eyes to see her shake
The midnight drifting from her loosened hair,
The girl once more in all her actions wake,
The blush of colour in her cheeks appear
Lost with her flowers that day beside the lake.
The summer flowers scattering, the shout,
The black manes plunging down to the black pit —
Memory or dream? She stood awhile in doubt,
Then touched the Traveller God’s brown arm and met
His cool, bright glance and heard his words ring out:
“Queen of the Dead and Mistress of the Year!”
— His voice was the ripe ripple of the corn;
The touch of dew, the rush of morning air —
“Remember now the world where you were born;
The month of your return at last is here.”
And still she did not speak, but turned again
Looking for answer, for anger, for command:
The eyes of Dis were shut upon their pain;
Calm as his marble brow, the marble hand
Slept on his knee. Insuperable disdain
Foreknowing all bounds of passion, of power, of art,
Mastered but could not mask his deep despair.
Even as she turned with Hermes to depart,
Looking her last on her grim ravisher
For the first time she loved him from her heart.

A few random poems:
- Галина Гампер – Я повторяю, сердце остужая
- F?sulan Idyl by Walter Savage Landor
- Summa poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Василий Жуковский – Моя богиня
- Огюст Барбье – Любовь к песням
- Drying Their Wings by Vachel Lindsay
- Last Wish by Théophile Gautier
- Forbidden Fruit by Michael Lally
- Teaching Children to Write by Free Writing
- Words Unspoken by Mark Olynyk
- Валерий Брюсов – Двадцать лет назад ты умерла
- Нина Воронель – Сиротское
- Above The Oxbow by Sylvia Plath
- A Carol by Rudyard Kipling
- Legacy by Vinko Kalinić
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
- The Dunciad: Book I. poem – Alexander Pope
- The Challenge: A Court Ballad poem – Alexander Pope
- The Basset-Table : An Eclogue poem – Alexander Pope
- Summer – The Second Pastoral; or Alexis poem – Alexander Pope
- Summer – The Second Pastoral; or Alexis poem – Alexander Pope
- Spring – The First Pastoral ; or Damon poem – Alexander Pope
- Song, by a Person of Quality poem – Alexander Pope
- Sappho to Phaon (Ovid Heroid XV) poem – Alexander Pope
- Sandys Ghost ; A Proper Ballad on the New Ovid’s Metamorphosis poem – Alexander Pope
- Prayer of St. Francis Xavier poem – Alexander Pope
- On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper poem – Alexander Pope
- On Seeing the Ladies Crux-Easton Walk in the Woods by the Grotto. poem – Alexander Pope
- On Mr. Gay poem – Alexander Pope
- On His Grotto at Twickenham poem – Alexander Pope
- On Colley Cibber poem – Alexander Pope
- On Certain Ladies poem – Alexander Pope
- On a Fan of the Author’s Design poem – Alexander Pope
- On a Certain Lady at Court poem – Alexander Pope
- Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day poem – Alexander Pope
- Occasioned By Some Verses of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham poem – Alexander Pope
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.