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:
- Apologetic Postscript Of A Year Later by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Elegy poem – by Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- In Memoriam A. H. H.: 82. I wage not any feud with death poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Shimmering by Satish Verma
- Little Girl Dancing by Susan King Saunders
- One Day You Will Miss Me.. by Rahul S
- Lookin’ For Myself by Shel Silverstein
- The Innocent Ill
- To a Beloved Child by Patrick Pearse
- Human Joys
- Paradise Lost: Book 05 poem – John Milton poems
- Proud Music of The Storm by Walt Whitman
- Robert Burns: The Braw Wooer:
- Юнна Мориц – Не вспоминай меня
- Tom The Lunatic by William Butler Yeats
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
- Epitaph on my Ever Honoured Father by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on John Rankine by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on John Dove, Innkeeper by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on John Busby, Esq., Tinwald Downs by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on James Grieve by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on Holy Willie by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on Captain Lascelles by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on a noted coxcomb by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on a Noisy Polemic by Robert Burns
- Epitaph on a Henpecked Squire by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for William Nicol, High School, Edinburgh by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Mr. William Michie, Schoolmaster by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Mr. Walter Riddell by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Mr. W. Cruickshank by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Mr. Gabriel Richardson, Brewer by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for James Smith by Robert Burns
- Epitaph for Gavin Hamilton, Esq. by Robert Burns
- Epistle to William Simson by Robert Burns
- Epistle to the Rev. John M’Math by Robert Burns
- Epistle to Robert Graham, Esq., of Fintry by Robert Burns
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.