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:
- Hesperus The Bringer by Sappho
- Владимир Данько – Верхом на палочке
- To His Dead Body by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Confederate Flags poem – Ambrose Bierce poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Epic of Jack and Jill by Robby Charters
- Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare
- Far Pitched Tents: Poems of War by Michael Nikoletseas
- Then by Philip Levine
- Philip Levine – Philip Levine
- Robert Burns: Lady Onlie, Honest Lucky:
- Weaving waves by Shailendra Singh
- Love and Burgers: Compatible or Incompatible Relationship?
- Michael: A Pastoral Poem by William Wordsworth
- Cupid’s Reign Of Terror (March 2012) by Stevens Cadet
- What would I do without this world by Samuel Beckett
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
- The Reformers by Rudyard Kipling
- The Recall by Rudyard Kipling
- The Rabbi’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- The Quesion by Rudyard Kipling
- The Queen’s Men by Rudyard Kipling
- The Puzzler by Rudyard Kipling
- The Prodigal Son by Rudyard Kipling
- The Pro-Consuls by Rudyard Kipling
- The Prayer of Miriam Cohen by Rudyard Kipling
- The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling
- The Last Rhyme of True Thomas by Rudyard Kipling
- The Last of the Light Brigade by Rudyard Kipling
- The Last Department by Rudyard Kipling
- The Land by Rudyard Kipling
- The Lament of the Border Cattle Thief by Rudyard Kipling
- The Ladies by Rudyard Kipling
- The Kingdom by Rudyard Kipling
- The Jester by Rudyard Kipling
- The Jacket by Rudyard Kipling
- THE IRISH GUARDS by Rudyard Kipling
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.