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:
- To Sr Henry Vane The Younger poem – John Milton poems
- Conference Swan Beauty
- Robert Burns: Epigram On A Country Laird,: not quite so wise as Solomon.
- God’s Grandeur poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- A Stone I died by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Postscript by Seamus Heaney
- The Welsh Marches poem – A. E. Housman
- Mr. Mistoffelees by T. S. Eliot
- Владимир Набоков – Забудешь ты меня, как эту ночь забудешь
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Липы
- The Dawn Of American Literature
- Константин Батюшков – Мечта
- Reconciliation. by Walt Whitman
- PRESCIENCE by Satish Verma
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
- Songs of Joy by William Henry Davies
- Seeking Beauty by William Henry Davies
- Sadness and Joy by William Henry Davies
- Rich or Poor by William Henry Davies
- Rich Days by William Henry Davies
- No Master by William Henry Davies
- Nell Barnes by William Henry Davies
- Money by William Henry Davies
- Leisure by William Henry Davies
- Laughing Rose by William Henry Davies
- Joy and Pleasure by William Henry Davies
- William Henry Davies – William Henry Davies
- In the Country by William Henry Davies
- In May by William Henry Davies
- Days Too Short by William Henry Davies
- Come, Let Us Find by William Henry Davies
- Charms by William Henry Davies
- April’s Charms by William Henry Davies
- All in June by William Henry Davies
- Ale by William Henry Davies
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.