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 Sultans Palace
- Life poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster
- Fidelity by William Wordsworth
- The Leädy’s Tower by William Barnes
- Sonnet 08 poem – John Milton poems
- A Short View Of: The State Of Man by William Alexander
- Владимир Высоцкий – Очи чёрные: Часть I
- There is but there is not poem – Amy Haritha Suseel poems | Poems and Poetry
- Far Pitched Tents: Poems of War by Michael Nikoletseas
- Ballade: In favour of those called Decadents and Symbolists, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s Ballade: En faveur des dénommés Déca by T Wignesan
- He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats
- Persephone, Falling by Rita Dove
- The Welsh Marches poem – A. E. Housman
- Lines to Sir John Whitefoord, Bart by Robert Burns
- The house where I was born (10) by Yves Bonnefoy
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 Eve Of St. Agnes poem – John Keats poems
- The Day Is Gone, And All Its Sweets Are Gone poem – John Keats poems
- Stanzas poem – John Keats poems
- Song of the Indian Maid, from ‘Endymion’ poem – John Keats poems
- Robin Hood poem – John Keats poems
- On The Sea poem – John Keats poems
- On The Grasshopper And Cricket poem – John Keats poems
- On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again poem – John Keats poems
- On Seeing The Elgin Marbles For The First Time poem – John Keats poems
- On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour poem – John Keats poems
- On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer poem – John Keats poems
- On Fame poem – John Keats poems
- Ode To Psyche poem – John Keats poems
- Ode to Fanny poem – John Keats poems
- Ode To Autumn poem – John Keats poems
- Ode To A Nightingale poem – John Keats poems
- Ode On Melancholy poem – John Keats poems
- Ode On Indolence poem – John Keats poems
- Ode On A Grecian Urn poem – John Keats poems
- O Solitude! If I Must With Thee Dwell poem – John Keats poems
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.