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:
- The Death of Grandfather poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Федор Сологуб – Во внутреннем дворе отеля
- Leady-Day, An’ Ridden House by William Barnes
- Ольга Берггольц – Обещание
- Tithonus
- A Grace after Dinner by Robert Burns
- Clouds by Philip Levine
- How to Write Creative Non-fiction
- Bill ‘Awkins by Rudyard Kipling
- Николай Языков – Песня (Я жду тебя, когда вечерней мглою)
- Robert Burns: The Cotter’s Saturday Night: Inscribed to R. Aiken, Esq., of Ayr.
- Robert Burns: Sic A Wife As Willie Had:
- Владимир Маяковский – Чаеуправление (реклама)
- Олег Бундур – Спешу
- The Spring by Thomas Carew
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
- On Going Unnoticed by Robert Frost
- On a Tree Fallen Across the Road by Robert Frost
- October by Robert Frost
- Now Close the Windows by Robert Frost
- Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
- Not To Keep by Robert Frost
- New Hampshire by Robert Frost
- Never Again Would Bird’s Song Be The Same by Robert Frost
- Neither Out Far Nor In Deep by Robert Frost
- My November Guest by Robert Frost
- My Butterfly by Robert Frost
- Mowing by Robert Frost
- Misgiving by Robert Frost
- Meeting and Passing by Robert Frost
- Maple by Robert Frost
- Looking For a Sunset Bird in Winter by Robert Frost
- Lodged by Robert Frost
- Locked Out by Robert Frost
- Leaves Compared With Flowers by Robert Frost
- Into My Own by Robert Frost
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.