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:
- In Honour Of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Sonnet 50: How heavy do I journey on the way by William Shakespeare
- The Puzzled Game-Birds by Thomas Hardy
- Владимир Британишский – Фет в кирасирском полку
- Wake Oslo up again by Philo Ikonya
- Gipsies by William Wordsworth
- Witch Burning by Sylvia Plath
- Алишер Навои – Когда, тоскуя по тебе
- Robert Burns: Clarinda, Mistress Of My Soul:
- The Arrival Of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath
- Низами Гянджеви – Пускай охотится на всех газелеоких
- Dark Matter
- Flirting by Satish Verma
- Savour Your Life by Ronald G. Auguste
- Death & Co. by Sylvia Plath
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
- Sonnet (X) : In the search of the physical immortality by Neelam Sinha
- Sonnet (VIII) : Some left crown , some left land and some into exile by Neelam Sinha
- Sonnet (IX) : Flesh o flesh ! The momentous , the mortal , the doomed by Neelam Sinha
- Set me FREE by Neelam Sinha
- Riposte to the Bard: Sonnet 130 remade in my lady’s image by Neil Outar
- Rapture by Neil Outar
- Praises to my motherland ! by Neelam Sinha
- O the Chimneys by Nelly Sachs
- Mirage by Neelam Sinha
- Minnesang by Neil Outar
- Mama, Come Back by Nellie Wong
- Mad Nuclear Mushrooms by Adeola Ikuomola
- Lonely Poets by Ndue Ukaj
- Know thy SELF by Neelam Sinha
- Job by Nelly Sachs
- Immigranten by Ndue Ukaj
- Illusion of Time by Ndue Ukaj
- I too want to ESCAPE by Neelam Sinha
- I know you will remember ME by Neelam Sinha
- Hummingbird by Nicole M Nugent
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.