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:
- Lines Written As A School Exercise At Hawkshead, Anno Aetatis 14 by William Wordsworth
- On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Apollo the great by Neelam Shah
- Turn, O Libertad. by Walt Whitman
- Зинаида Александрова – Кролики
- Screens (In a Hospital) by Winifred Mary Letts
- I Cast My Net Into The Sea by Rabindranath Tagore
- A Humble Heroine by William Topaz McGonagall
- Robert Burns: Tam Samson’s Elegy: When this worthy old sportman went out, last muirfowl season, he supposed it was to be, in Ossian’s phrase, “the last of his fields,” and expressed an ardent wish to die and be buried in the muirs. On this hint the author composed his elegy and epitaph.-R.B., 1787.
- Desertion by Rupert Brooke
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Не надо
- Владимир Агатов – Бессмертный Ленинград
- Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue by W H Auden
- Blue Evening by Rupert Brooke
- The Woman In The Rye by Thomas Hardy
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 Британишский – В болотах севера Евразии
- Владимир Британишский – Утром 10 мая 1945 года
- Владимир Британишский – Уронили, потеряли
- Владимир Британишский – Урочище
- Владимир Британишский – Унифицированный современный поэт
- Владимир Коркин – Август дозреет яблоком
- Владимир Гиппиус – Закон чего? – закона нет
- Владимир Гиппиус – Узел
- Владимир Гиппиус – Слава
- Владимир Гиппиус – Писать стихи
- Владимир Гиппиус – Иначе, как стихами, говорить
- Владимир Гиппиус – Друг, скажу тебе несказанное
- Владимир Гиппиус стихи: читать все стихотворения, поэмы поэта Владимир Гиппиус – Поэзия на Poetry Monster
- Владимир Гиляровский – Я эоловой арфы струна
- Владимир Гиляровский – Владимирка – большая дорога
- Владимир Гиляровский – Покаюсь
- Владимир Гиляровский – Песня Дона
- Владимир Гиляровский – Нива
- Владимир Гиляровский – На Севере
- Владимир Гиляровский – Кузьма Орел
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.