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:
- Федор Сологуб – Ветер в трубе
- Rise, O Days. by Walt Whitman
- A New Year’s Resolution to Leave Dundee by William Topaz McGonagall
- The Tears of Scotland by Tobias Smollett
- Social Amenities poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- On The Morning Of Christs Nativity poem – John Milton poems
- Владимир Британишский – Ты шепчешь мне
- Sonnet CXXXIX by William Shakespeare
- The Parrot by William Cowper
- Как Снегурочка дела
- The Heritage by Siegfried Sassoon
- Rita And The Rifle by Mahmoud Darwish
- Вера Полозкова – Декабрь
- Shrodon Feäir by William Barnes
- Caledonia: A Ballad by Robert Burns
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 Princess And The Goblins by Sylvia Plath
- The Other by Sylvia Plath
- The Other Two by Sylvia Plath
- The Night Dances by Sylvia Plath
- The Net-Menders by Sylvia Plath
- The Munich Mannequins by Sylvia Plath
- The Moon And The Yew Tree by Sylvia Plath
- The Manor Garden by Sylvia Plath
- The Lady And The Earthenware Head by Sylvia Plath
- The Jailer by Sylvia Plath
- The Hermit At Outermost House by Sylvia Plath
- The Hanging Man by Sylvia Plath
- The Great Carbuncle by Sylvia Plath
- The Goring by Sylvia Plath
- The Glutton by Sylvia Plath
- The Ghost’s Leavetaking by Sylvia Plath
- The Fearful by Sylvia Plath
- The Eye-Mote by Sylvia Plath
- The Everlasting Monday by Sylvia Plath
- The Dream by Sylvia Plath
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.