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:
- We Two Boys Together Clinging. by Walt Whitman
- Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Advice: A Satire. by Tobias Smollett
- After Parting by Sara Teasdale
- Ballade Of Blind Love poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Love’s Fitfulness poem – Alfred Austin
- Oh fair enough are sky and plain poem – A. E. Housman
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Чудом тени
- Apology to Delia by William Cowper
- If Old Men Fought by Mac McGovern
- The Human Tragedy ACT III poem – Alfred Austin
- The Name poem – Alexander Pushkin
- This Morning by Raymond Carver
- Алексей Толстой – Ушкуйник
- Гавриил Державин – Оковы
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
- You are coming! by Preeth Nambiar
- Wish If You…! by Praveen Parasar
- When the universe speaks by Preeth Nambiar
- WATER LILLIES AND ADVICE by PEGGY AYLSWORTH
- Waking up on a rainy morning by Preeth Nambiar
- Wake Oslo up again by Philo Ikonya
- Towards The sky by Pushpendra Singh Baghel
- To Double Lock by Pierre Reverdy
- The way aboard by Preeth Nambiar
- The Theatre of Illusion by Pierre Corneille
- The Survivor by Primo Levi
- The Search by Pornika Ganguly
- The Magic by Preeth Nambiar
- The Love! by Praveen Parasar
- The Last Letter by Priyanka Tungana
- The Fragrance of life by Preeth Nambiar
- The Deeper Shadow by Pierre Reverdy
- The Actor by Preeth Nambiar
- That Light by Paul Hostovsky
- Termites by Piera Chen
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.