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:
- Sonet 4 by William Alexander
- Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long by William Shakespeare
- You Can Have It by Philip Levine
- Юрий Коринец – Стихи о вшах
- Михаил Кузмин – Три раза я его видел лицом к лицу
- Storm and Sunlight by Siegfried Sassoon
- Mules poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster
- Ольга Берггольц – Сестре
- Lament of Mary, Queen of Scots by Robert Burns
- We’re Late by W H Auden
- Алексей Ржевский – Портрет
- A Welcome by William Browne
- A Poet! He Hath Put His Heart To School by William Wordsworth
- Альфред де Мюссе – Как лепестки весеннего цветка
- Lover’s Gifts II: Come to My Garden Walk by Rabindranath Tagore
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
- Leaving Early by Sylvia Plath
- Last Words by Sylvia Plath
- Landowners by Sylvia Plath
- Insolent Storm Strikes At The Skull by Sylvia Plath
- In Plaster by Sylvia Plath
- In Midas’ Country by Sylvia Plath
- Go Get The Goodly Squab by Sylvia Plath
- For A Fatherless Son by Sylvia Plath
- Flute Notes From A Reedy Pond by Sylvia Plath
- Faun by Sylvia Plath
- Family Reunion by Sylvia Plath
- Fable Of The Rhododendron Stealers by Sylvia Plath
- Epitaph In Three Parts by Sylvia Plath
- Epitaph For Fire And Flower by Sylvia Plath
- Electra On Azalea Path by Sylvia Plath
- Dream With Clam-Diggers by Sylvia Plath
- Doom Of Exiles by Sylvia Plath
- Dirge For A Joker by Sylvia Plath
- Death & Co. by Sylvia Plath
- Crossing The Water 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.