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:
- Rain by Reena Ribalow
- Алексей Плещеев – Ответ
- Autumnal Sonnet by William Allingham
- The Dream of Eugene Aram by Thomas Hood
- A Mysterious Naked Man
- minimalism_and_the_elm_choka.html
- Николай Глазков – Про пожары
- Омар Хайям – Долго ль спину придется мне гнуть или нет
- Do You Know What Its Like
- Ballade Of Dead Ladies poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Sonnet 105: Let not my love be called idolatry by William Shakespeare
- Faithless Nelly Gray by Thomas Hood
- Dedication To Lady Windsor poem – Alfred Austin
- A Figurative Description Of The Procedure Of Divine Love by William Cowper
- Metamorphoses Of The Moon 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
- Epigram—Divine Service at Lamington by Robert Burns
- Epigram—Commissary Goldie’s Brains by Robert Burns
- Epigram at RoslinInn by Robert Burns
- Epigram at Brownhill Inn by Robert Burns
- Epigram Addressed to an Artist by Robert Burns
- Elegy on Willie Nicol’s Mare by Robert Burns
- Elegy on the Year 1788 by Robert Burns
- Elegy on the late Miss Burnet of Monboddo by Robert Burns
- Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair by Robert Burns
- Elegy on the Death of Robert Ruisseaux by Robert Burns
- Elegy on Stella by Robert Burns
- Elegy on Captain Matthew Henderson by Robert Burns
- Election Ballad for Westerha’ by Robert Burns
- Election Ballad at close of Contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790 by Robert Burns
- Duncan Gray by Robert Burns
- Dialogue Song—Philly and Willy by Robert Burns
- Despondency: An Ode by Robert Burns
- Delia: An Ode by Robert Burns
- Complimentary versicles to Jessie Lewars by Robert Burns
- Complimentary Epigram to Mrs. Riddell 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.