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:
- The Conjugation of the Paramecium by Muriel Rukeyser
- Wind in the Beechwood by Siegfried Sassoon
- Epitaph for Mr. Gabriel Richardson, Brewer by Robert Burns
- Омар Хайям – Чем пустыми мечтами себя донимать
- Жан де Лафонтен – Ласочка в амбаре
- On The Death Of A Favourite Cat, Drowned In A Tub Of Gold Fishes by Thomas Gray
- Олег Бундур – Не ходите ночью
- The Room by Mark Strand
- Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats. by Walt Whitman
- Владимир Степанов – Почему не спят котята?
- The Owl by Ted Hughes
- Николай Гумилев – Никогда не сделаю я так
- In shadows of night
- Ballade Of The Dead Cities poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Identity of Images by Robert Desnos
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
- Chronicle
- Change
- Beauty
- Bathing River
- Bathing In The River
- Answer Copy Verses Sent Me Jersey
- Anacreontics The Swallow
- Anacreontics The Epicure
- Anacreontics Drinking
- An Answer To A Copy Of Verses Sent Me To Jersey
- Against Hope
- Against Fruition
- Summer Moon
- Stars
- Love Is Just Like The Rain
- Boy Running In The Rain
- Xai Kou From Book Seeds Of Faith
- Xai Kou1
- Xai Kou0
- Xai Kou
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.