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:
- A Silent Song by Pamela Griffiths
- To Somebody Out There by Vashti Trisawati Abhidana
- Point Shirley by Sylvia Plath
- Memory poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Give Me Back My Rags #12 by Vasko Popa
- No Regrets by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Sigh No More by William Shakespeare
- Кондратий Рылеев – О милый друг, как внятен голос твой
- He Remembers Forgotten Beauty by William Butler Yeats
- The Hawk by William Butler Yeats
- How Sweet It Is, When Mother Fancy Rocks by William Wordsworth
- The Merchant of Copan [In English and Spanish]
- Спиридон Дрожжин – Рожь
- Immaculacy by Satish Verma
- The Shadow of Crows by Ndue Ukaj
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
- Orlando Furioso Canto 12 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 11 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 10 by Ludovico Ariosto
- Orlando Furioso Canto 1 by Ludovico Ariosto
- On The High Pedestal by Shahida Latif
- No quise detenerte by Luz del Alba Nicola
- Memo to my Spouse by Adeola Ikuomola
- Love Poem by Aditya Kumar
- Love by Shahida Latif
- Let me draw your face by St Antoine de la Vuadi
- La Greatest by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- Kiss Me Again by St Antoine de la Vuadi
- Is It True! by Luis Estable
- In Our Time by Michael D Wentworth
- I love you by Inganathi Ntantiso
- I did not want to stop you by Luz del Alba Nicola
- I Call Your Name In My Heart by Samuel Stephen Wakdok
- I Ask Someone To Resolve by Shahida Latif
- I Am Just Saying! by Luis Estable
- Here I would have loved you by Luz del Alba Nicola
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.