A poem by Alec Derwent-Hope (1907–2000)
by Alec Derwent Hope
What did I study in your School of Night?
When your mouth’s first unfathomable yes
Opened your body to be my book, I read
My answers there and learned the spell aright,
Yet, though I searched and searched, could never guess
What spirits it raised nor where their questions led.
Those others, familiar tenants of your sleep,
The whisperers, the grave somnambulists
Whose eyes turn in to scrutinize their woe,
The giant who broods above the nightmare steep,
That sleeping girl, shuddering, with clenched fists,
A vampire baby suckling at her toe,
They taught me most. The scholar held his pen
And watched his blood drip thickly on the page
To form a text in unknown characters
Which, as I scanned them, changed and changed again:
The lines grew bars, the bars a Delphic cage
And I the captive of his magic verse.

A few random poems:
- Владимир Набоков – Стансы (Ничем не смоешь подписи косой)
- The Survivor by Primo Levi
- Robert Bruce’s March to Bannockburn (Song) by Robert Burns
- “Wishing to float” by Seema Gupta
- Владимир Высоцкий – День-деньской я с тобой, за тобой
- Казимир Лисовский – Река Енисей
- Landscape by Paul Celan
- Drum-Taps. by Walt Whitman
- Fabliau Of Florida by Wallace Stevens
- Shattered Dreams by SWARAJ PRASAD
- Валерий Брюсов – Дворец любви
- Bishop Blougram’s Apology by Robert Browning
- English Poetry. Christina Georgina Rossetti. A Christmas Carol. Кристина Джорджина Россетти.
- Владимир Маяковский – Проверь, товарищ, правильность факта
- X: Some Verses: To His Most Affectionate Friend Mr. Lithgow by William Alexander
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 Epic Menageries by MB Moshe
- The Cup of Life by Mike Yuan
- The Colored Balloon by Mike Yuan
- The Cinnamon Peeler by Michael Ondaatje
- State Fair Time by Michael S Wilson
- Speaking To You (From Rock Bottom) by Michael Ondaatje
- Soulmating by Mike Yuan
- Since That Summer by Mike Yuan
- Searching by Mike Yuan
- Scotland by MB Moshe
- Ruined World by Michael Yuan
- Ready for Retirement by Mike Yuan
- Promise Ya by Miraj Patel
- Picking Cherries by Mike Yuan
- Outset by Mike Yuan
- Obdurant men, the worst of the abstinant by Miles
- Notes For The Legend Of Salad Woman by Michael Ondaatje
- Not even a child by Miles
- Nailing by Mike Yuan
- My Ink by Mike Yuan
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.